Garage rock. Before Monday night, these words meant nothing more to me than how Wikipedia described The Black Keys. Sure, I have every White Stripes album and sure, I listen to MC5 and The Stooges. But I never really looked into what these words truly meant. Last night, when Hanni El Khatib and company rocked the High Noon Saloon, all that changed.
The show kicked off with local garage-heroes The Hussy. Sounding like something out of the ’80s hardcore scene, they’re definitely an act worth checking out. The same couldn’t be said about the following act—Bass Drum of Death. As a fan of both their records, I have to say they weren’t the most exciting thing to watch on stage. It almost felt as though they didn’t really want to be there at the High Noon, which was disappointing. It wasn’t until the second half of their set that they really shined (2011’s “Get Found” came as a hell of a closer).
Then there was Hanni El Khatib. I had first heard of the Los Angeles rocker through a friend, who described him as “kind of like The Black Keys.” Well, that might make sense, since his last album was produced by the Black Keys’ guitarist and singer Dan Auerbach. But don’t let that cloud your judgement—El Khatib is definitely a considerable act in his own right.
El Khatib and his band came out guitars drawn and immediately began playing their way through much of his new album, Head in the Dirt. Blues licks and power chords rang through the High Noon during the first half of their set that included a kickass version of “Build. Destroy. Rebuild.” and a cover of The Cramps’ “Human Fly” that sounded like something that’d come from a punk-fan’s first garage act, but was so tight and well done that it deserved to be heard by everyone. “You Rascal You,” arguably El Khatib’s most famous song, followed. A blues infused romp, it played out how one would imagine that impossible Jack White/Black Keys collaboration would—absolutely great.
As the feedback hummed, El Khatib turned to talk to the crowd while some technical issues were worked out behind him. A man of few words, he thanked us all for “coming out on a Monday” and joked about the banner behind him that the guitar tech had knocked over—“Doesn’t that look great?” Once the guitar tech made his way off the stage, they kicked off into the more light-hearted “Penny,” a highlight off of Head in the Dirt. More from his new album followed. The headbanger “Pay No Mind” and “Save Me”—which kind of sounded like a dirty version of The Hollies—definitely stood out, as did the set-closer, “Family,” a biker-gang’s punk song.
As the band walked off stage, the cheers of the maybe 30-person crowd beckoned El Khatib on for one more. Taking the stage alone, he began finger picking the chords to “House on Fire,” the final track on Head in the Dirt. Starting out slow, the song built up into a huge rocker as the rest of the band joined El Khatib on stage.
As the final power chord came down, I was left awestruck. It was far from a perfect concert, but the roar of the amplifiers instilled in me a newfound love for the bands of kids who—with nothing more than a cheap guitar—spent their days in their dad’s garage, playing old punk covers through dirty amplifiers with dreams of one day sharing their love of music with the masses. And that is the definition of garage rock.
