More-mature Black Keys hit all the right notes

The Black Keys have evolved. When the acid blues duo played to a couple of hundred people at Spaceland in April 2003, they seemed like a stripped-down college fuzztone revival, still blasting the bejeezus out of one guitar and one drum kit, but with a touch of backwoods irony best symbolized by singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach’s green track suit and full beard.

No more. At the Avalon on Friday, Auerbach and lanky slap drummer Patrick Carney came on with a dirty sophistication born of a year of hard touring and a new album, which gave their blues a ferocious new power.

Sometimes kicking with a garage-rock rattle reminiscent of the White Stripes, the Akron, Ohio, duo unleashed a huge but nicely managed barrage of distorted electric blues that veered from the scorched-earth tone of Parliament’s Fuzzy Haskins to the classic blues-rock of Cream and Blue Cheer. Auerbach held down all the melody parts perfectly, and his singing voice has improved to a sweet Eric Clapton-like tone.

“When the Lights Go Out,” off the new “Rubber Factory,” was a gorgeous psychedelic swamp blues, with Auerbach’s tone so convincing, if you closed your eyes you heard Muddy Waters’ “Electric Mud.”

But the night’s biggest hits were those off 2003’s “Thickfreakness,” especially the Cream-like “Have Love Will Travel” and “No Trust.”

The set was short at an hour, but included the pair’s inspired cover of the Stooges’ “No Fun.” By the time they got through two short encores and ended with a towering, chaotic “Set You Free,” the sound had just started to settle in, and the Keys were smart to walk off and just let the distorted blue note ring into the night.