Just got back from seeing The Black Keys at the Forum. And even though it feels like my head is about to split open, I have just enough will power to sit here and tell y'all that it was an EXCELLENT gig, before I blunder off to bed and fall into the sweet sweet luxuriousness of my new mattress. Aaaahh. There were three Australian support acts tonight, only one of which I had vaguely heard. But all of them were pretty damn good. If only I could remember their names. The first one was a two piece, whose guitar player would sometimes play a bit of clarinet, and it was good up-tempo rootsy/rocky stuff. I really enjoyed it. Whatever their name is, they're playing at the Duke of Windsor on Saturday, and they'll be opening there too. Really good. The second band I was in two minds about. But they had two great lead vocalist guys and their closing number "Tough Love" was supreme. I don't know their name either, but they're at the Espy on Saturday, and then later at Pony, or something. So figure it out for yourselves. The third support were The Drones, who played their slower stuff because the rhythm guitarist had a broken metacarpal. It was great. Sometimes sounded like early Nick Cave/late Bob Dylan. Nice. Anyway, all three bands seemed to perform really well and had great singers attached. Which is only right, considering that the lead singer of The Black Keys has such a great voice. They played a lot of new stuff, but the best song of the night BY FAR was Everywhere I Go from the Thickfreakness album. Oh man, that song was brilliant. Amazing. I also liked this one point during the night when we were referred to as "y'all", not in an obvious or pandering way, but simply because that's just how these sweet foreigners talk. They look like real nice and friendly boys, too. And not at all bearded, which is what I had expected. Rather, Dan Auerbach looked like a young, tanned and sandy-haired version of Jon Stewart [and he had really straight white teeth], and Patrick Carney looked like a lanky geek who really knew how to pound drums [sometimes using a maraca, which I hadn't seen before]. So it was a good night. Yeah, those boys from Akron can play real good. And it appears there's plenty of good Australian music coming our way, too.

Now, must to bed. Von Bondies tomorrow night. Need rest.