The Black Crowes at the Paramount Theater

On Tuesday 2 Oct 07, 7:00 PM my friend Kirk and I went to see The Black Crowes at that “magnificent cathedral of entertainment” the Paramount Theater in Seattle, WA. It was fantastic!!!

Way back when, I was vaguely familiar with the Black Crowes. A friend had a copy of Shake Your Money Maker that he played constantly through most of 1990 and 1991. It was OK but it wasn’t where I was in my musical “journey” so I moved on to other things. Fast forward to 2000 and The Black Crowes collaboration with Jimmy Page at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, CA. Now that piqued my interest. I went back and listened to their catalog and discovered that the brothers Robinson have written some great songs. They’ve taken the chugging rhythm of Ronnie Wood, combined Keith Richards tasty licks & catchy hooks and finished with Rod Stewart’s (Faces era) boozy swagger. It's what Mick & Keith would have sounded like they were raised in the south eastern US. They rock. To describe the Black Crowes music in one sentence; The Rolling Stones meet The Allman Brothers. How could anyone not like that!!! Needless to say the boys have received regular rotation on my MP3 player ever since.
When I heard about the Paramount show I knew I was going to go. However, I had no idea what to expect. The 4000 seat Paramount has great acoustics and no bad seats. I was thoroughly familiar with the Crowes’ body of work and liked nearly everything. However, I approached the show with trepidation due to some bootleg files I’d heard from shows (how accurately can one duplicate the live music experience while surreptitiously recording the artist with a, more than likely, sub-par system?) I also had concern with their lack of sibling harmony, Rich and Chris have been known to bicker and The Crowes have had considerable and frequent changes in band personnel over the years. Oh well, in for a penny in for a pound.

A roadie moved an incense burner to each side of the stage and the jasmine smoke wafted up to fill the auditorium with its mellow scent in a matter of minutes. Shortly after that the lights went out. No dimming, someone just flipped the switch off. You could just make out the boys in the glow of cigarette embers and amp lights strolling to their spots on the stage. With the first chords of Virtue and Vice I knew it was going to be a stellar experience.
With the current line-up of: Vocals & Guitar: Chris Robinson, Guitar & Backing Vocals: Rich Robinson, Drums: Steve Gorman, Bass: Sven Pipien, Keyboards: Adam MacDougall, Guitars: Paul Stacey, Backing Vocals: Charity White and Mona Lisa Young (I think) they moved quickly from song to song and delivered a set of popular singles, a couple of extended jams and a few covers. Chris, known for between number ramblings (his comments cost them a opening gig spot for ZZ Top in 1991) was surprisingly brief. With the exception of an early amp problem for Rich the mix was nice, if not a little loud. Steve Gorman hit the drums like he was swinging a pair of 5 lbs. mauls. Rich stayed to the left of his brother throughout the evening moving from Gone to Sting Me to Cypress Tree to Good Friday while barely taking a breath. At the end of each song the tech would be waiting behind the keyboards with another guitar, Rich would plug it in (they used long guitar chords plugged into the amps, no radio controlled shit, very old school) and just as the applause died down he’d launch into another tune. Chris, true to form and right on the mark with his influences delivered soulful, heartfelt, rocking vocals. And as with Stewart & Jagger he can't dance to save his life. It didn't matter.
The highlight of the night for me was Soul Singing. Great guitar work with a nice melody and Chris’s call-response chorus with Mona Lisa & Charity, it was brilliant! They added a very nice version of the CSN&Y song, Everybody I love You from Déjà vu and followed with William Bell’s You Don’t Miss Your Water. That began the jam period which continued with Downtown Money Waster transitioning to Thorn in My Pride which ended the show.
The encore was the Holland Dozier penned Don’t Do It. They leaned toward the version The Band performed on Rock of Ages and Last Waltz. The show was just shy of the two hour mark. Kirk and I were able to make it home at a respectable hour.

The Black Crowes are working on a new album slated for release in early 2008. Rumor has it they have 16 tracks in the can and they’re mixing them down. So far no material from the new sessions has been played live. This will be the first Black Crowes studio release since Lions in 2001 I am looking forward to it.
You can hear some of their tracks at http://blackcrowes.com/

More to follow…