After ‘tumultuous’ 2024, this band to rock Boise for 1st time in decades at major concert
New year, new attitude.
After a dramatic 2024 that Rolling Stone described as “tumultous” for the duo, garage-rockers The Black Keys are roaring back on the road — and Boise is a beneficiary.
The Black Keys will headline Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden on Friday, May 30, during its outdoor “No Rain No Flowers Tour.” Tickets will become available to the general public starting at 10 a.m. Friday for $75 at Ticketmaster. Garden members can buy them beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday for $70. The opening act will be Hermanos Gutierrez.
Forming the band in Akron, Ohio, in 2001, vocalist-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney crafted a raw, bluesy sound that’s made them critics’ darlings. They’ve won five Grammy Awards and toured the globe. They’ve performed in Boise before, but it’s been a long time. (Did you not see them open for Beck in 2003?)
In 2024, the Keys ran into a tough stretch. Their 31-date arena tour, which included dates at Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Kia Forum, was “canceled amid reports of low ticket sales,” Rolling Stone recently wrote, “and a public split with their former management team,” which included industry power broker Irving Azoff.
Afterward, Carney declared on X: “We got ****ed.”
Nevertheless, the Keys have regrouped. They started work on a new album. And they’re embarking on a fresh, not-quite-so-ambitious road trek.
“After the tour was canceled, the consensus was, ‘**** happens, and you just have to move through it,’” Carney explained in a press-release statement. “We were already on a creative streak, and the best thing we could do, rather than sit at home, was just go back in the studio. Get back to work. So, that’s how the record started.”
The Black Keys show is the latest in an Outlaw Field concert schedule that’s heavy on early-season action. The rest of the lineup includes Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit (May 17), Lord Huron (May 23, sold out), Khruangbin (May 29), Goose (June 1), Earth, Wind & Fire (June 17), Modest Mouse (June 29), Lake Street Dive (July 8), Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas (July 23) and Chicago (Aug. 27).
Idaho Center shows
In other concert news, the Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater added two more shows to its summer schedule.
▪ Reggae-rockers Slightly Stoopid will headline Saturday, July 26, with guests Iration and Little Stranger.
Tickets become available to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday through fordidahocenter.com, starting at $49.50. There’s also a venue presale starting at noon Thursday.
▪ In an evening of 1990s nostalgia, Gin Blossoms and Blues Traveler will perform Tuesday, Aug. 26, with guest Spin Doctors.
Tickets also become available to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday through fordidahocenter.com. They start at $45. The venue presale starts at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 9:40 AM.