Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: The Black Keys Turn Rogers Arena Into a Blues Bar on the Peaches ’n Kream Tour
For a band that spent the better part of the 2010s filling arenas with polished radio rock, The Black Keys looked strangely comfortable stripping things back at Rogers Arena on May 31. Similar to when I saw them in 2012 at the Sporthalle in Hamburg, Germany, there were no giant moving stages, no overworked visuals, no desperate attempt to remind people how massive they used to be, and even better, no phones up the whole night as the fans truly immersed themselves in the moment. Instead, the Peaches ’n Kream Tour leaned hard into something looser and dirtier.
Jeremie Albino opened the night with a set that fitted perfectly for this version of The Black Keys. The Toronto blues-rock singer walked onstage without much fuss and immediately filled the arena with a raw, raspy voice. He truly has one of the best voices I have heard in a while. Backed by a tight band that leaned into gritty Southern rock and old-school soul, Albino delivered songs with enough swing and swagger to win over a crowd that was still filing into their seats. Opening arena shows can sometimes feel like background noise while people buy drinks and hunt for merch, but Albino managed to cut through the early-night chatter.
The Black Keys walked onstage to a giant glowing band logo and immediately slammed into “Heavy Soul,” which set the tone for the next hour and a half. Dan Auerbach’s guitar tone sounded enormous all night, the kind of crunch that rattles around your chest before it reaches your ears. Patrick Carney, meanwhile, played with the same blunt-force simplicity that made the band compelling in the first place.
The current touring lineup deserves a lot of credit for why this era of the band feels rejuvenated instead of nostalgic. Guitarist Barrie Cadogan added extra muscle without crowding Auerbach, and bassist Joe Harrison locked everything together with a loose, rolling groove that kept the set from becoming too stiff. Keyboardist Ray Jacildo and percussionist Chris St. Hilaire filled out the sound with touches of soul and psych-rock shimmer that made even familiar songs feel slightly rearranged.
“Tighten Up” slowed into something smokier. “Everlasting Light” became almost dreamlike, with Auerbach stretching the melody instead of sprinting through it. Even “Gold on the Ceiling,” still one of the best arena rock songs they ever wrote, carried more grit than swagger this time around.
A lot of that comes from Peaches!, the band’s new covers-heavy record built around the Hill Country blues music that shaped them as kids in Akron. The influence ran through nearly every corner of the set. Covers like “Have Love Will Travel” and “You Got to Lose” felt central to the entire identity of the tour. The Black Keys have spent years polishing themselves into mainstream rock headliners, but this show worked hardest when they sounded slightly unkempt.
“Weight of Love” was easily one of the night’s strongest moments. Auerbach let his solos wander without overplaying, and for a few minutes Rogers stopped feeling like an arena altogether. The whole room suddenly had the atmosphere of some overheated roadside bar where the amps are too loud and nobody cares.
That feeling carried into “Lo/Hi,” which rolled with a heavy psych-rock pulse. There were moments where the pacing sagged slightly in the middle stretch, particularly when too many slower grooves stacked together, but the band always found a way to snap things back into focus before the energy drifted too far. But when they finally reached the home stretch, they absolutely unloaded.
“Little Black Submarines” still hits with ridiculous force live, especially once the quiet opening gives way to the explosion halfway through. When “Lonely Boy” closed the night, the entire arena was moving.
The biggest surprise of where The Black Keys are right now is that a lot of legacy rock bands hit this stage of their career and coast on muscle memory ; yet, The Black Keys seem to have avoided this trap. They’re clearly aware that the arena-rock peak has cooled off a bit, but instead of fighting that reality, they’ve circled back to the music that made them exciting before the Grammys, before the commercials, before “Lonely Boy” became unavoidable.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
Upcoming Tour Dates:
6/3/26 – Edmonton, AB – Rogers Place
6/5/26 – Calgary, AB – Spruce Meadows – ATCO Field
6/6/26 – Calgary, AB – Spruce Meadows – ATCO Field
6/8/26 – Jackson, WY – Snow King Resort
6/9/26 – Ogden, UT – Ogden Amphitheater
6/11/26 – Stateline, NV – Harveys Lake Tahoe
6/12/26 – Las Vegas, NV – Virgin Hotels Las Vegas – The Theater
6/13/26 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
7/16/26 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed – Fairgrounds
7/17/26 – Saint Paul, MN – Minnesota Yacht Club Fest
7/19/26 – Chesterfield, MO – The Factory
7/20/26 – La Vista, NE – The Astro – Outdoor Amphitheater
7/21/26 – Oklahoma City, OK – The Zoo Amphitheatre
7/23/26 – Dallas, TX – Bomb Factory
7/24/26 – Houston, TX – Lawn at White Oak Music Hall
7/25/26 – New Braunfels, TX – Whitewater Amphitheatre
7/28/26 – Clearwater, FL – Coachman Park – The BayCare Sound
7/29/26 – St Augustine, FL – The Saint Augustine Amphitheatre
7/30/26 – North Charleston, SC – Firefly Distillery – Lawn
8/1/26 – Richmond, VA – Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront
8/2/26 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
8/4/26 – Newport, KY – MegaCorp Pavilion
8/6/26 – Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle
8/7/26 – Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle
8/28/26 – Paris, FR – Rock En Seine
8/29/26 – Portsmouth, UK – Victorious Festival
8/31/26 – London, UK – Eventim Apollo
9/1/26 – London, UK – Brixton Academy
9/4/26 – Amsterdam, NL – AFAS
9/6/26 – Cologne, DE – Palladium
9/7/26 – Bern, CH – Festhalle
9/9/26 – Munich, DE – Zenith
9/10/26 – Milan, IT – Alcatraz
9/13/26 – Madrid, ES – Movistar Aena
9/15/26 – Istanbul, TR – KüçükÇiftlik Park
10/10/26 – Verona, NY – Turning Stone Resort & Casino
10/11/26 – Portland, ME – Cross Insurance Arena
10/13/26 – Moncton, NB – Avenir Centre
10/14/26 – Halifax, NS – Scotiabank Centre
10/16/26 – Laval, QC – Place Bell
10/17/26 – Ottawa, ON – Canadian Tire Centre
10/18/26 – Windsor, ON – Caesars Windsor
More information here.
THE BLACK KEYS
JEREMY ALBINO
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: The Paper Kites Bring Warmth and Quiet Charm to Vancouver
On May 20th, Australian folk band The Paper Kites brought an intimate night of their warm indie folk tones to The Centre for Performing Arts.
The band is touring in support of their newest album, If You Go There, I Hope You Find It, which sees them lean further into their warm, atmospheric indie-folk sound, delivering a reflective and intimate collection shaped by themes of home, longing and quiet hope. Compared to their last record, At The Roadhouse, which leaned into a more Americana sound, this feels more of a return to form for the band. Tunes are reminiscent of some of their earlier Twelvefour and On the Train Ride Home material that put them on the map.
At 9:00 pm, the lights dimmed in the auditorium and with no grand entrance, the band took the stage to a roar of the audience, opening with the first track of If You Go There, I Hope You Find It “Morning Gum”. In the classic Paper Kites fashion, the whole group stood around lead singer Sam Bentley’s microphone for a stripped-down intro, before tending to their main instruments and kicking in their full sound.
The Paper Kites continued to preview some of their new material, like “Change of the Wind” and “Every Town,” while mixing in some of their best on At The Roadhouse, like “Till the Flame Turns Blue” and “Black & Thunder.”
For a cover of Colin Hay’s “I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You”, Sam brought out opener, Donovan Woods, to help him perform the song acoustically. Showing off some of his charisma, Sam joked about breaking the number one rule and asking Hay what his song was about — ultimately getting the response that it was about drinking Whisky to get through some of the hard times. The pair delivered a beautiful rendition of the song, blending soothing vocal harmonies that earned a roaring response from the audience.
Sam introduced the band: Christina Lacy on guitar and keyboards, his brother Josh Bentley on drums, Sam Rasmussen on bass guitar and synthesizers, and David Powys on “just about everything,” including guitar, banjo, lap steel, and bongos.
The frontman reinforced just how grateful the band was to be back in Vancouver, which they have been visiting for the better part of 13 years now. He talked about their humble beginnings playing the Biltmore Cabaret and staying at the Patricia Hotel, the now SRO that sits on the cusp of the East Hastings area — definitely an eye opener for the Australian group. Getting stuck in the snow in Wyoming, The Paper Kites had to cancel their Portland show, with the band admittedly upset as they hadn’t had to cancel a show in their tenure as a group. With some hustle, The Paper Kites were able to make it to Vancouver — again, Sam expressing his deepest gratitude for fans making it out to the gig.
To a roar of the crowd, the Aussie musicians came back out for a two-song encore, starting with their hit “Bloom,” with fans helping out the band with the choruses. David Powys got a moment to shine with a tasteful banjo solo that stole the show. Ending the night, Sam egged the crowd to get on their feet as they closed with the feel-good song, “When The Lavender Blooms.”
The Paper Kites delivered an intimate collection of songs, seamlessly capturing the crowd’s hearts from the beginning. With the Centre being a 1800 capacity venue, the band has a way of making you feel like you’re in a bar, with their charm and stripped back sound. Sam shared the sentiment that each time they return, the crowds seem to grow — and it’s clear that whenever The Paper Kites are in town, passionate fans show up, with more joining every time.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
THE PAPER KITES
All Photo Credit: Hunter Soo
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: The Last Dinner Party Turned Vancouver’s Orpheum Into Their Own Gothic Playground
There’s a thin line between theatrical and try-hard. The Last Dinner Party spend most of their live show sprinting directly at that line, then somehow vaulting over it without falling flat on their face. At the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver on May 19, the band’s From The Pyre Tour felt huge, dramatic, occasionally ridiculous, and fully convincing anyway.
That’s harder to pull off than people give them credit for. A lot of bands borrow aesthetics: velvet curtains, religious imagery, corsets, vintage silhouettes, tragic womanhood as performance art. The Last Dinner Party actually build a world around those ideas and commit to it so fully that the audience starts behaving like they’ve entered the same universe. Walking into the Orpheum before the show felt like arriving late to an elaborate costume party where everyone had been assigned a literary archetype ahead of time with lace gloves, ribboned dresses, heavy boots, and tiny opera binoculars. One woman looked like she’d escaped from a haunted manor in 1872 ; another looked ready to front an early-2000s emo band. Somehow both made sense.
The Last Dinner Party opened with “Agnus Dei,” and immediately the whole production snapped into focus. The towering drapery, faux-stone staging, dim cathedral lighting, and the band’s carefully styled costumes could have overwhelmed the actual music in weaker hands. Instead, it sharpened it. The set design wasn’t decoration, it functioned like an extension of the songs themselves.
Frontwoman Abigail Morris remains one of the most magnetic performers working right now partly because she never performs like she’s above any of this. Plenty of singers can command a room. Morris pulls people into one. She spent nearly two hours stalking across the stage, throwing herself into songs with total conviction, then suddenly grinning between tracks like she still can’t believe the band got this big this fast. That balance matters as without it, the band’s maximalism could easily turn self-serious. Instead, the show constantly breathed.
The run of “Count the Ways,” “The Feminine Urge,” and “Caesar on a TV Screen” early in the set was absurdly strong. Guitarist Emily Roberts shredded through riffs with a refreshingly unpolished swagger compared to a lot of modern indie rock’s obsession with restraint. There were moments during “Caesar on a TV Screen” where the entire show tipped into full glam-rock spectacle. Big gestures, big harmonies, big emotions, and no apology for any of it.
Midway through the set, things got darker and more interesting. Songs from From The Pyre carried far more weight live than they do on record, especially “Woman Is a Tree” and “Rifle.” The quieter moments felt genuinely tense inside the Orpheum. You could hear the room lock in. During the eerie vocal opening of “Woman Is a Tree,” the band gathered close together beneath dim lighting while shadowy bird imagery hovered overhead. It was one of the night’s best moments.
The absence of bassist Georgia Davies, who remains off tour recovering from injury, was acknowledged warmly. Touring bassist Max Lilley handled the material well, though Davies’ absence still felt noticeable in a band this chemistry-driven. The Last Dinner Party work best when they feel like five personalities colliding together at once.
Keyboardist Aurora Nishevci quietly stole several moments throughout the night, especially during “I Hold Your Anger,” which landed with force live. The band’s harmonies remain their secret weapon. Beneath all the theatricality and visual ambition, they’re still an exceptionally tight musicianship-first band.
Before launching into “Nothing Matters,” Morris asked the crowd to put their phones away for one song. The people listened and suddenly the room felt freer and less self-conscious. The balcony shook during the chorus as people screamed every word back at the stage.
The encore leaned fully into chaos. “This Is the Killer Speaking” arrived with dance instructions and country-western absurdity. By the time the band closed with an “Agnus Dei” reprise, the crowd looked exhausted and completely won over.
The Last Dinner Party are already very good. What makes this tour exciting is that they still feel slightly dangerous around the edges. There are moments where the ambition threatens to spill over, moments where things nearly become too theatrical or too sentimental. But they should protect that feeling at all costs.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
Upcoming From The Pyre Tour Dates:
05/20 Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall %
05/22 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo %
05/26 Sacramento, CA – Channel 24 %
05/27 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater %
05/29 Los Angeles, CA – Orpheum Theatre %
05/31 Del Mar, CA – The Sound %
06/02 Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom %
06/04 Des Moines, IA – Val Air Ballroom %
06/05 Saint Paul, MN – Palace Theatre %
06/07 Detroit, MI – Masonic Jack White Theatre %
06/09 Columbus, OH – KEMBA Live! %
06/10 Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle %
06/12 Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore Charlotte %
06/13 Atlanta, GA – The Eastern %
% with Automatic
More information here.
THE LAST DINNER PARTY
AUTOMATIC
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer