The Black Keys have opened up about the “insane” energy they felt in Manchester ahead of Oasis‘ shows there.
- READ MORE: The Black Keys tell us: “There was more to it than the tour, but making this record helped us work through it”
The Ohio duo played at Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl two days before the Gallagher’s triumphant homecoming gig at Heaton Park, with Dan Auerbach telling The Independent they’d “never really seen anything like it” in the lead-up.
“We were in Manchester for a couple days right before [Oasis’] first show there,” explained Patrick Carney. “Getting to feel a whole country excited and pumped for a rock band reunion… it was kind of insane. It was amazing.”
At their own concert, Auerbach sported an Oasis Adidas top and congratulated the crowd “for getting your band back”, per Manchester Evening News. They later took to Instagram to give a “Big ups to THE Brothers, Noel & Liam, on bringing it home this weekend!”
Although both commended Oasis and the buzz surrounding the comeback tour, Carney also touched on the scale of the gigs dwarfing any news of smaller gigs, which inadvertently led to him missing a Mumford & Sons show.
“Everybody in the world knows Oasis was playing Wembley this weekend,” he said of their recent five-night residency in London. “But that just takes up so much bandwidth – and rightfully so – on your algorithm. It’s a weird time, man. How are you supposed to get the word out?”
Back in June, The Black Keys spoke to NME about their new album ‘No Rain, No Flowers’, and touched on the making of previous record ‘Ohio Players’, which saw them team up with Beck as well as Noel Gallagher.
“We’ve been such big fans of him and his brother for a long time, and after we tried to write a song live in the studio, he told us that he’d never just written like that before,” Carney shared. “I think that’s a cool thing about collaboration – it’s always different and it kind of puts you on the spot to deliver.”
For his part, Noel previously said he thought the songs he’d co-written with The Black Keys were “fucking amazing”, and went on to join the band for live performances of their track ‘On The Game’ on Later… With Jools Holland, as well as ‘Only Love Matters’ at Brixton Academy in 2024.
The year before, Carney referred to him as the “incredible” Noel Gallagher when speaking to us about The Black Keys’ first UK headline tour in over 10 years. “He’s hilarious and super talented, We were referring to him as ‘The Chord Lord’ because he’s just a perfectionist with it.”
Elsewhere in our recent chat with the band, they expressed disappointment that their touring schedules had them missing the ‘Live ’25’ dates.
“We’re missing them by a day everywhere!,” Carney said: “We’re in Mexico City the day before they are, and we have an event in Nashville the next day, so we can’t stick around. Then we’re playing Manchester two days before their first show there, so we’re just missing it again!”
The Black Keys are currently in the middle of a European tour. Visit here for international tickets.
