Sometimes I’ll go months without an event.  Sometimes I’ll play guitar for myself nightly for a week.

All I knew about the Black Keys until tonight was that they were from Akron, Ohio, and that I missed out on their formative years.  They played The Union in 2002-ish when I was attending school at Tulane in New Orleans.  Had I stayed in Athens, maybe I could have opened for them.  Tonight, the Arctic Monkeys opened for them before thousands at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.  The Arctic Monkeys were miserable but I skipped out on a $50, Q-level seat to steal a peek from directly behind the set.  This was one of the absolute best performances I’ve ever heard, seen, etc.

I commend two men and their backup band for performing expert Ohio garage rock, accessible to throngs of wailing urbanites and Virginians.  I don’t care how big they get — they’re wonderful.