Busted is one of those tunes that is almost a signature song for The Black Keys when playing live. It’s hard to find a fan who doesn’t love it.
Busted is so ecstatic when it’s played as a longer drawn out version around 4 minutes in length – it builds and falls and stalls and then releases. It’s a song where Dan Auerbach can usually play guitar hero and work the fuzz and feedback. Fans love that and no doubt would welcome more of it.
There also seems to be a relationship between when the song is played in the set (middle rather than start) and how rowdy the crowd are and Dan finding a sweet spot on stage to influence the sound pressure. One eggs the other on to fully bring the power of the song live.
Maybe it’s just the use of the slide and the distinctive sound and emotive feeling this engenders that creates a special atmosphere?
It’s been pretty epic on The Black Keys’ recent tour seeing Stack Shot Billy segue into Busted. A real highlight of the show.
These are some of the best live versions:
A personal fave – a good example of crowd, guitar banging, feedback and the band feeling it
Very different sounding on the Harmony guitar. Dan seems to prefer playing it with this guitar in recent times
Pretty epic – sweet use of ‘hand slide’.
In the early days The Black Keys played it much faster
Seen a better one? What’s your favourite and why?
Related posts:
- Video: The Black Keys Live In Austin
- Video: The Black Keys Live @ Lola’s Room, Portland, USA, 2003
- Video: The Black Keys Live at Melkweg 2006
- Chris Johnson’s Live Video Archive of The Black Keys
- Dan Auerbach – When The Night Comes – Live
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It’s cool how Stack Shot Billy always precedes this song now, it’s like the two were made for each other.
Oh, and Busted wasn’t the opening track in that one clip. It was in the middle of the set, he was just doing one of his chat breaks.
@Dan Leary corrected
Without question, the Sydney Australia DVD is my personal favorite. I’m partial to that concert DVD in general though as I was somewhat new to the keys when I saw it and was completely blown away by it. Doesn’t get any better than the Tele for me.
Without a shadow of a doubt it has to be the Corn Exchange gig from 2003. It’s got so much energy, Dan’s guitar and vocals are perfect, Pat’s drums sound incredible and most of all, you can feel how eager they were to impress.
John Peel sums the Black Keys perfectly when he states “..what is so great about these two is they just don’t know how good they are”.
I found a link to the whole gig for anyone who doesn’t have a copy. A special mention has also got to go to the version of No Trust on this recording, it’s stunning!
http://www.doctormooneymusic.com/2010/05/black-keys-slay-peel-session-at-old.html
@Tom yeah there were a few good Peel sessions – http://theblackkeysfanlounge.com/2010/03/the-black-keys-john-peel-radio-sessions/