The Black Keys have been defying genre labels for the entirety of their 20-year span. Are they blues rock? Psychedelia? An indie-garage band with a penchant for raw rock ‘n’ roll guitar riffs and thunderous drum backbeats? Whatever you want to call them, at their Aug. 24 stop at the iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre on their Dropout Boogie tour, The Black Keys were loud and raw, and at their absolute best.

The show started promptly at 7:15 with a tight set of gritty, rockabilly blues from opening act Early James that deserved a far larger crowd. But the audience filed in en masse for the show’s special guest, Band of Horses, offering up an applause so loud that one could be forgiven for confusing them as the show’s headliners. Entire rows of fans shook off the muggy South Florida heat and jumped and danced along to every track from their 10-song set which included “Is There a Ghost” from their latest album, Things Are Great and “Laredo” from their 2011 Grammy-nominated Infinite Arms, and closing with the folksy “The General Specific.” 

After Band of Horses’ set, a special message played warning the audience about The Black Keys. Comedian David Cross, posing as a member of the organization “Dads Interested in Choosing our Kids’ Songs,” pleaded with the packed crowd to leave before the “hedonistic” Black Keys took the stage. The crowd laughed and cheered as a photo of Keys guitarist and vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney was slapped with a big red “BASTARDS” label, and Cross decried the rock duo as a couple of dropout degenerates. When the video urged the audience to “stand up and make a statement” against the band, the crowd’s cheers rose to an incredible fever pitch that erupted even further when The Black Keys took the stage.

The Keys wasted no time going straight into the heavy blues swagger and booming drum beats of “I Got Mine.” A powerhouse of an opener, no doubt, which set the tone for the rest of their nearly two-hour set. Auerbach breathed new life into familiar hits like “Tighten Up” and “Gold on the Ceiling” with improvised guitar riffs that made each track sound like it was being heard for the first time. Behind the band, a large screen showed camera feeds from all angles of the stage, including one in Patrick Carney’s drum set that added an extra dimension to his delightfully brash beats. 

A few songs were played off of their latest album, Dropout Boogie, including “It Ain’t Over” and “Your Team Is Looking Good,” but a large chunk of their 22-song set was drawn from their 2021 album of classic hill country blues covers, Delta Kream. These songs filled out the middle of the show and were aptly chosen as the concert’s climax. Joining the band onstage was legendary blues guitarist Kenny Brown, who made a name performing with blues titan R.L. Burnside, and had a profound influence on The Keys’ sound. Auerbach acknowledged this onstage, going so far as to say without Kenny Brown, there would be no Black Keys.

Brown played along for six tracks including a cover of Junior Kimbrough’s “Stay All Night”, John Lee Hooker’s “Crawlin’ Kingsnake” and a particularly impressive cover of R.L. Burnside’s “Goin’ Down South,” which showed off Auerbach’s impressive vocal range as he smoothly crooned the song’s chorus. Brown was the true standout of these tracks, however, with the audience erupting in cheers at the end of every meticulous solo. While The Keys played their entire setlist with loud and heavy aplomb, this section of classic blues tracks stood out as the performance’s most impressive aspect.

The Keys closed out their set with “Wild Child” off of Dropout Boogie as pencils and red devils rained down a wall of white lockers on the screen behind them. After a quick break, the band came back onstage. Auerbach put out his cigarette and thanked the audience for coming out, and a single white light shone down from overhead as he picked up an acoustic guitar and played the opening to “Little Black Submarines.”

With every pause in the song’s soft opening, the crowd’s anticipation grew and when Auerbach donned his electric guitar and hit the first chord of the song’s drop, the audience roared in delight. Stage lights flashed, drums boomed, and the entire crowd danced and sang along. The Black Keys closed out their encore with the bluesy anthem “Lonely Boy,” in a bright, picturesque display of the raw and heavy pomp that makes them one of the last great blues acts in the business.

For more of Boca magazine’s arts and entertainment coverage, click here.