Review:

Dan Auerbach bounced on stage at the Palace Theatre in Bourke Street wearing a porkpie hat and clutching a gleaming white Gibson SG guitar.

When the bearded, long-haired half of the Black Keys threw himself into the opening bars of Girl is on my Mind, from 2004's Rubber Factory, the hat went flying and the standing-room-only crowd could sense this would be a night of no-nonsense, pure rock'n'soul direct from Akron, Ohio.

A huge inflated tyre adorned the stage, first seen in Melbourne when the band performed at the Forum in 2006. This time around, Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney had a new album, Attack & Release, under their belts and spent the next 90 minutes unveiling songs and dipping into five albums stretching back to 2002's The Big Come Up.

"We always have such a good time when we come to Melbourne," Auerbach said, before launching into a cover of Captain Beefheart's I'm Glad. It was the only time the pair strayed from their stripped-back sound, which owes as much to the grooves of Booker T and the MGs as Mississippi bluesmen Junior Kimbrough and R. L. Burnside. Stack Shot Billy, also from Rubber Factory, was among several highlights and captured Auerbach at his brilliant best, gently caressing the neck of his guitar, bending notes and all the time extracting the sounds of the Delta.

Carney, wearing spectacles and leaning over his minimal kit, unleashed thunderous drum rolls in Set You Free, then produced a sparse, uncluttered beat as Auerbach's vocals wailed high above the chugging guitar of Thickfreakness, from the 2003 album of the same name. 10AM Automatic is a Black Keys classic and had those close to the stage swinging and swaying early on, while most just marvelled at the sheer power being produced by two musicians who, until a few years ago, were still mowing lawns to help fund their music.

Same Old Thing was the first slice off the new album, which has seen the pair incorporate bass, organ and piano into their strict drum-and-guitar ethos.

Strange Times, I Got Mine and the wonderful Ocean and Streams, all from Attack & Release, are evidence of what two musicians can produce when they put their hearts and souls into the creative process and were highlights of a set that swept you up and carried you along. Your Touch and You're the One were the only songs lifted from 2006's Magic Potion, before The Breaks transported fans back to the earliest days of the band, which was formed while Auerbach and Carney were waiting for some other musicians to turn up for a practice session that never eventuated. While the previous visit to Melbourne was a rollicking trip that pushed the boundaries, new songs such as Psychotic Girl were evidence of a band now firmly in control of its possibilities.