C H R I S ' I S M |
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before Black Moon Creeping...
"What's happening? What's happening? (lame crowd response) Well that was pretty lackadaisical! I said what's happening? (louder crowd response) I mean, you gotta expect that today in America... We break the band up, we get back together and now everyone's like 'Oh, yeah we see them all the time'. Don't you know how insecure we are? We need love! (crowd response) Oh yes, that kind of love. So we might just love you back..."
before Pre-Road Downs...
"Can you believe when they made this John Roberts guy the head of the Supreme Court no one asked him 'But what would you do if the moon turns black and it happens to start chasing you around', metaphorically speaking of course, 'What..' (crowd seems confused) ...This is a hippie song..."
before Soul Singing...
"Thanks a lot for letting me say the 'H word' in public, man, that was cool..." (referring to "hippie")
before Space Captain...
"Well, we played a hippie song, and now we're going to play a punk rock song. Oh wait, no it's another hippie song. I fucked up..."
before Trouble...
(crowd royally fucked up singing Space Captain) "Hey listen, this isn't self promotion but everyone who sang that wrong, that's why you should buy the Instant Live CDs, now the Black Crowes are brought to you by Lipitor and Instant Li... ah that's bullshit..."
before Pardon My Heart...
"Did I say Lipitor before, man? I meant Liquid Labotomy, that's my new product. (laughs) It comes in a tube. And it's not liquid. Uh huh..."
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F A N . N O T E S |
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Oh man, another day, another city. Philly and Lexington, VA have gone by like the speed of light. Tonight's venue, like the Tower, was located in a very urban part of the city, making me wonder if they plan to play The Apollo next time around. Nevertheless, the 9:30 Club was packed with the whitest of the white. The crowd was almost as lame as the frat/homecoming crowd in Lexington on Saturday night. Tonight, for the first time ever at a Black Crowes concert, I did not smell weed. Not once, except of course for the several occasions in which I lit up. I was surrounded by fist-pumping-light-beer-drinking Frat Guys. Pumping the peace sign repeatedly for the ENTIRETY of My Morning Song? I'm not kidding. These guys were acting so goofy it transcended parody and went into a kitch-art imitating life hallucination.
The evening began with the slow movement down the Greasy Grass River, working well as an opener with the groovy intro. Sting Me was resting giving Stare It Cold a chance to come in and knock us out. A swampy jam with the excellent syncopated outro led into a fantastic Black Moon Creeping. The tuning up part of the next song revealed Pre-Road Downs which Chris called "a hippie song". Sounds like the intro to Pastoral almost everytime, it's like you get more than they planned for with that number.
The warhorse of the year, Soul Singing was hauled out next to the delight of the drunken, chain-smoking faithful. Chris was in fine spirits tonight, talking a lot in between songs. After introducing Space Captain as "another hippie song", the morons in the crowd vocally evidenced their collective brilliance by loudly botching the whoo's and ahh's. Not just once, but constantly through the song. It was embarrassing in a way, but then again, what can you expect with idiots. They were so bad, Chris even mentioned it during the song, afterwards advising the problem singers to pick up the Instant Live, and that The Black Crowes are brought to you by Lipitor - he was in good spirits!
Chris left the stage and Rich sang lead on Little Feat's wonderful Trouble. I'm really enjoying this cover in particular, Rich's reverence for the song shines through in his performance. Chris returned and Steve and Eddie departed for a soulful rendition of Pardon My Heart, always stunning to see. 3 covers in a row, neat! Next, My Morning Song in all its power and glory, always a treat. Rich played a 12 string acoustic on the set closer, Lay It All On Me. One hour and twenty minutes down, what could be next?
Don't Do It opens up the second set! Maybe the best cover of the entire tour, maybe not, but the thrill is certainly not gone with this one. This song is a great litmus test for the sound mix and it was on tonight. Marc's vocal part was flawless, nobody was buried in the mix. A powerful performance as usual. A maraca-less Gone intro led into five minutes of pure Crowe bliss. Can't get enough Amorica! Chris played an acoustic on the next number, one of my personal favorites, Cancel Everything. Marc nailed it once again tonight, with Rich providing nice harmonies and the girls coming in perfectly on the chorus. All this one needs is Chris to sing harmony and it's perfect. Another epic Hard To Handle followed, making mincemeat out of the drive-thru version they played in Lexington on Saturday. Marc and Rich are just insane on the second half of this.
Marc, Sven, Steve and Eddie exited for the next one, a beautiful cover of "This Is The Way". They really do this one justice, surpassing Devendra's original. Devendra Banhart just released a new album which the band has been using for pre-show PA music. The rest of the band returned for the best Girl From The North Country they've ever done. Marc just shined bright on this one, but the band was just a soul machine on this. Chris missed the first vocal cue, but nailed the entire song with a vengeance, no beat skipped. Rich was perfect on this one. Lots of covers so far tonight! This second set is shaping up to be really interesting when, damn, Another Roadside Tragedy! Nice choice! I love this song and haven't been disappointed by it yet. It was exceptionally tight this evening, the jam economical AND trippy! They didn't stop and didn't quite segue into Wiser Time, a heavily smoking on fire Wiser Time. The crowd was really into this and didn't let go for the last two songs of the set, a solid, heavy Twice As Hard and a nice Jealous Again.
We were hoping for another surprise, what with all these covers tonight, who could tell what the encore would be. The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down. Ahhhhhh. Perfect ending.
See ya tomorrow! - [badge]
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Well all I can say is WOW ! This was an incredible show. I am really looking forward to seeing them again tonight.
The Highlights for me were a a great Greazy !! and the jam before Black
Moon was great. I thought for sure the set would end after MMS but when
they started playing "Lay it all on me" I was estatic. The second set was
no let down by any means ! Cancel Everything was great, nice to see just
Chris and Rich. The jam after hard to handle was incredible and made the
song much easier to hear again. Wiser Time is always a pleasure to hear.
And certainly no let down with The Night they drove ol' dixie down !!!
Thanks again crowes and I will see ya tonight.
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Wow what a show the 930 club was rockin tonight.the crowes are now my
favorite live band the sound at the club was off the hook chris
robinsons vocals were amazing. the best part of this show for me was
seeing these guys so up close.the songs that chris sang tonight was just
what i wanted on a cd that i bought except they did not play my favorite
song cosmic friend.but that is okay they played wiser time that is my
other favorite song.in all a great time.geoff [sabu24@comcast.net] |
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