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Over the past few years, Black Keys frontman and Nashville resident Dan Auerbach has fiddled with more records for non-Keys projects than The Keys (or his other band, The Arcs) can ever hope to release in such a time frame. So maybe it’s not surprising that Auerbach popped up on Monday night's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, backing the Pretenders’ performance of their latest synth-y single, “Holy Commotion," from the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers' 10th studio album Alone.
It's not surprising because Auerbach produced Alone (which dropped last month), having cut the record in October 2015 at his Easy Eye Sound Studio just on Eighth Ave., with Nashville cats the (mostly) Nashville cats the likes of Dave Roe, Russ Pahl, Kenny Vaughan, Leon Michels and Richard Swift.On Colbert, “Commotion” comes off with way more garage-rock grit than its studio version, jettisoning the electro-arpeggios for Auerbach’s fuzz-heavy rhythm guitar (familiar to fans of Keys cuts like “Howlin’ For You"). An energetic performance, for sure, punctuated by Auerbach leaning waaaaay over to add backup into Chrissie Hynde’s mic.
