Lets talk about The Black Crowes for a second. Yes, they’re an imitation of The Stones, The Allman Brothers, and The Faces, but I’m pretty much ok with that. How many other bands sound like that these days? Sometimes you need your yearly dose of extremely loud stoner guitar rock, and thats exactly what we got last night, at a small venue in South Jersey. They have some sort of new album coming out, no one is too excited for that, except after Maxim wrote a fake review of it before they heard any music, starting some controversy. The point is, Maxim said it sounds like The Crowes never evolved after their first few albums and they’re stuck in this mid 70’s rock thing, this album brings nothing new. They published this without hearing a note. Well, I was among the first 1000 people to hear this new album (they performed it in its entirety last night) and I can pretty much say, they’re right.
The first CD I ever bought was Shake Your Money Maker. My 2nd musical heroes, post Guns N Roses, were The Black Crowes. I would beg my parents to take me to shows at age 12, and reluctantly they dragged me to The Beacon Theater a few times a year. The venue pretty much became 1 giant cloud of smoke, the perfect environment for a 12 year old badass to hear the loudest band ever. I did feel kind of lucky, I got to see them with the original lineup at the peak of their heroin addictions, also the peak of their experimental musical phase. One night a 12 piece horn section sat in, which was truly amazing. But after a while, it started to get a little watered down, the set lists became the same, The Hits became more present. So, we move on, the band goes on indefinite hiatus, thats just how it goes.
But, at some point a few years ago, a giant reunion happened, with something like 7 nights at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Marc Ford even crawled out from under his rock and re-joined the band. I attended one of these shows, and felt extremely satisfied with the results. They pulled out some very obscure rarities, a few covers, minimal hits, a positive experience. It still wasn’t the early days or extended jams, on stage fights, sloppy jamming, and unpredictability, but I could deal with it.
The show last night was somewhere in between all of this. They looked a little weathered, everyone in the band sporting a beard, and with Luther Dickenson from The Word and The North Mississippi Allstars on guitar. He seemed to bring new life to the band, Chris and Rich seemed very happy with his presence, and his Duane Allman ripoff slide lines. The venue was filled with the Jersey Crowd you would expect, 91% dudes, wearing T shirts of the band.
But, they still sound like themselves. They’re not at the point where they’re an imitation of themselves, just an imitation of a musical period long ago, which again, I am ok with. Rich Robinson had 3 amp heads, a few cabinets, and 2 tape echoplexes, overkill? Sure, why not. They’re incredibly loud, and always have been. I read an interview with Andy Hess, one of their temporary bass players, who said they never learned about dynamics, they just liked the way they sounded with everything on 10, so why play any other way? yes yes, we’ve all been there.
Yes, the pictures suck, deal with it. After the new album was played start to finish, they did a few other tunes, I think some weird covers, one hit, and one album deep cut. So, this marks the first show where I only knew 2 songs a band performed. Kept on the toes the entire night, a nice change.
I could also totally replace Steve Gorman on drums. He’s proficient, not flashy, and has good time. My plan is to somehow hit him with a mic stand, and I’ll run up really quickly to replace him. I’m growing a beard in preparation.
OK, enough of that. Did anyone see Wilco on Saturday Night Live? I caught the youtube re-cap…the Tweedy Suit?? Yes, the man never lets you down.