Time to 'tighten up,' San Diego -- the Black Keys are finally coming back to town. On Thursday morning, the multi-Grammy-winning blues-rock duo announced a North American tour that includes a stop on Sunday, Nov. 17, at Pechanga Arena (formerly known as Valley View Casino Center).
General admission tickets go on sale to the public on Friday, March 22, at 10 a.m. PST via LiveNation.com, while various pre-sale options begin on Thursday, March 21 at 10 a.m.
Fresh off the surprise March 7 release of "Lo/Hi," their first single since 2014's studio album "Turn Blue," the upcoming trek will find guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney back in America's Finest City after a long, five-year drought. In fact, the last time we saw the retro-rockers in our neck of the woods, they played SDSU's Viejas Arena in November of 2014 -- however, if you’ve been keeping up with the Black Keys guys, you know they’ve been busy.
Auerbach's rolled through the Observatory North Park twice in the last three years -- once in 2016 with the Arcs (photos), as well as a solo show with his Easy Eye Sound Revue just last year (photos). Meanwhile, Carney -- who is engaged to Michelle Branch (the couple welcomed their first child, Rhys James, last August) -- backed the singer/songwriter on drums during her show at the Music Box in July 2017 (see photos here).
Needless to say, the group's just-announced "Let's Rock" Tour (which boasts Modest Mouse and Shannon & the Clams as openers) is a welcome return to the fold. Since their raw 2002 debut album, "The Big Come Up," the duo have been pumping out blues-tinged rock & roll ear candy like two obsessed madmen. They rose to worldwide prominence on the strength of 2008's Danger Mouse-produced full-length, "Attack & Release," and its huge hit singles "I Got Mine" and "Strange Times."
Even bigger success would follow with the release of 2010's album "Brothers" -- which spawned the singles "Tighten Up," "Everlasting Light" and "Howlin' for You" -- and also earned them three Grammy Awards (out of five nominations that year). They followed that with another platinum-selling album, "El Camino" in 2011 and eventually "Turn Blue" three years later.
It’s been a long wait but well worth it: Welcome back, fellas.
