The Black Keys and The Crypto Thing
I went to the show so that you didn’t have to!
There I am, right up front. Photo taken from some crypto X post about the show.
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually live at The Mall. I live in the decaying Rust Belt former metropolis of Akron, Ohio. I’ve lived here my entire life. And, as a music fan, I’ve cut my teeth on the music scene here for a very long time.
I first got into blues rock duo turned full band The Black Keys back in 2003. There was a lot of buzz surrounding their first album, The Big Come-Up. Instead of ignoring said buzz (because, despite being local, I was also hanging out at our now long-gone punk dive bar, Annabell’s, and didn’t really listen to blues), I grabbed a copy of their debut from the library and gave it a listen. I loved the lo-fi sound of the recording, and loved Dan Auerbach’s voice almost immediately.
They had a show scheduled at The Lime Spider (now a grilled cheese restaurant with a good bar called The Lockview), so I grabbed tickets and went to the show. The place was packed, with people sitting and lining the front of the stage. The show was awesome, especially considering the fact that there were only two of them on stage. I snapped a bunch of photos on my digital camera (as well as some on a film SLR for a photography class I was taking at University of Akron), and I planned to see them again as soon as I could.
The Black Keys @ Lime Spider, 2003. Photos by Jessica Anshutz.
I saw them frequently over the years. They played a free show outdoors at Kent State, and played frequently at The Lime Spider (where tickets were $8 and would sell out almost immediately). A friend and I even decided to take a road trip early on to Pittsburgh to see them at the long-gone 31st Street Pub, because we were curious whether they were as popular there as they were here in Akron. They played that room to 25 people, including us. I have a poster from that show in my files.
I watched them move on to other larger venues around town, like EJ Thomas Hall and The Akron Civic Theatre, to the bigger rock venues in Cleveland, like Beachland Ballroom and the Cleveland Agora. The last time I had seen them was in 2012 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, on the El Camino tour. By this time, they were a full band doing an arena show. I’ve never liked going to arena shows, due to the disconnect that I feel between crowd and performer in those venues, so that was the last time I saw them live.
When the America Loves Crypto free show was announced, there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to go. While I don’t give two shits about crypto and I generally dislike tech folks (having worked with startups, I got a front seat to that culture and still to this day can’t stand it), I will go to a free show. Election years in Ohio generally turn up some good stuff, too. When Obama was running, I went to see Bruce Springsteen play solo in a gym in Parma, and again at a bigger rally in Columbus, where Jay-Z also performed. I live about two miles from the Akron Civic, so keeping an eye on the line and getting there early wasn’t going to be a problem for this Black Keys gig.
Like most things tech bro, the details on the show were vague at best. I filled out a RSVP, which was confirmed by email. Then, a second RSVP was sent via email a few days later, to reconfirm my RSVP. Before I left to check in on the line, I found another email that said people with a crypto wallet were going to be let in first, so I downloaded a crypto wallet. I got in line around 3:30, and there were around 50 people in front of me. A second line was much longer.
I noticed immediately that there seemed to be some plants in the line, there to enthusiastically discuss crypto with others in line. I was surrounded by people like myself, who had no interest in crypto, we were just there for the show. The one plant was almost immediately outed in the ensuing content made by the America Loves Crypto folks from the show — he was in nearly every photo.
Doors opened around 5:15, and we went into the lobby. The show was catered by The Lockview (which was a cool nod to TBK’s past, and a favorite spot of ours), so I grabbed half of a grilled cheese because I hadn’t eaten all day. I skipped the free crypto merch (the band had no merch for sale). I walked into the hall downstairs, and overheard the usher saying that she was only letting “probably 225” people down to stand on the stage, so I quickly finished my sandwich and headed down to the stage. When i got up there, a longtime friend of mine was there with her husband, so I was able to go and stand right up front with them. There was no real barrier for the stage. I was surrounded by people I had seen at other shows in the area, and by Black Keys fans. Where were all of these people who were supposed to be hype about crypto?
The presentation started around 6:15. A bunch of crypto people took the stage, and gave presentations like unprepared high schoolers. The thing about tech people is that they speak in buzzwords wrapped in other vague nonsense. None of it was straightforward. One of them quoted Steve Jobs twice. Nobody mentioned a single candidate, despite various insufferable Redditors foaming at the mouth before the show, saying that it was going to be a Bernie Moreno rally (it wasn’t) and that anyone going was supporting the organizers’ message (we weren’t). It all felt very stilted and unprepared. There were snickers and light heckling from the crowd.
The band came on and ripped through their set of hits, with very minimal crowd banter. Dan’s voice still sounds great, and the band did as well. They never mentioned the organizers, or voting, or anything beyond “this may be one of the weirdest gigs we’ve ever played”.
What made it weird? The stage was set up facing backstage, so that the 200+ people on stage had a great view. The people who didn’t make it to the stage, however? They were relegated to the balcony, with the band playing with their backs to them. I think this was a decision made by the organizers, to make sure that their content made the event look packed. Had they faced the stage outwards, the photos/videos would’ve been harder to take, and would’ve made the crowd further away from the band. It didn’t take the fans into account; they were strictly there to make content that looked like Ohio was there to Stand for Crypto! And as someone who was there, Akron was there to see The Black Keys, period. The crypto heads were largely outnumbered by fans, at least from my view. Their content turned out exactly as I expected it would, but I work in social media marketing, game recognizes game. It’s all smoke and mirrors at the end of the day.
I got a lot of great photos that I would’ve never been able to get at an arena show without a photo pass. I heard a lot of songs live that I hadn’t heard in years. And I was back home by 9 pm. All in all, a win.
Would I have loved to see the place sold out, full of Akronites? Yes, absolutely. With their canceled tour earlier this year, a return to Akron for a string of sold-out shows at the Civic would’ve been a super cool move. But this wasn’t a Black Keys show; this was an event that they were paid to play at. It sucks, sure, but also, I get it. Living in dystopia is weird, and artists have to do weird shit sometimes in the name of money. I think the whole sellout trope is weird to have in 2024; touring bands are doing this as a job, and we go to jobs to make money, right? While The Black Keys are “hometown heroes” to some, they’re not local boys anymore. They’re a huge band who likely took this gig as a way to get back to town for a bit and see their families (some of whom were in attendance). And some of us got to enjoy a free, intimate show with a band that we watched grow over the years.
Will I see them again? We’ll see. I still hate arena shows, and i’ve skipped their shows pretty frequently over the years. But i’m glad I got to go to this one. It was weird, it was good, and now I can share it with you.
The Black Keys @ Akron Civic Theatre, October 2024. Photos by Jessica Anshutz.
