The Black Keys Tease 'Ohio Players' Era With Live Debut On California Stage

The Black Keys delivered an electrifying, career-spanning set to launch the 2024 iHeartRadio ALTer EGO presented by Capital One on Saturday night (January 13) on the Honda Center stage in Anaheim, California. The rock duo took the stage one day after they unleashed new single “Beautiful People (Stay High),” and revealed the release date of their 12th full-length studio album.

The duo — made up of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, hailing from Akron, Ohio — kicked off the highly-anticipated seventh annual alternative rock event with “I Got Mine,” appearing on the 11-track project Attack & Release in 2008. The Black Keys delivered hits spanning more than two decades of music, including “Gold On The Ceiling,” “Lo/Hi,” “Tighten Up,” “Howling For You,” “Wild Child,” “Little Black Submarines,” “Lonely Boy” and, of course, “Beautiful People (Stay High),” following its release on Friday (January 12). Auerbach and Carney joined forces with Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Beck to pen the debut single from their next album.

The Black Keys’ 12th studio record, Ohio Players, is slated to release on April 5, shortly after premiering their documentary, This is a Film About The Black Keys, at the SXSW festival. Carney said in a statement: “We'd never worked harder to make a record. It's never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right. What we wanted to accomplish with this record was make something that was fun. And something that most bands 20 years into their career don’t make, which is an approachable, fun record that is also cool.”

The Black Keys — who also took the stage during their iHeartRadio Music Festival debut in Las Vegas in 2022 — kicked off an epic iHeartRadio ALTer EGO, which was hosted by Woody of iHeartRadio ALT 98.7's “The Woody Show,” and also featured performances by Yellowcard, lovelytheband, Sum 41, The 1975, Bush, The Last Dinner Party, Thirty Seconds To Mars and Fall Out Boy.