The greatest ever rock n roll band in the world (according to this reviewer), just played 4 nights of practically perfect music – where were you?
Words and Photos – John Hayhurst
Ticket prices are extortionate these days and these were £70 each unless you were quick and got on the Live Nation Concert promotion where they reduced to a more palatable £25. Which would account for the Apollo in Manchester on a midweek night being 2/3rds full. This was the first of 4 nights I was to have with this band, I was indeed going to the whole tour as I normally do. This was something like the 120th time seeing my all time favourite band live in concert and so…yes, I’m completely biased in this review.
However, I’m not alone in the hardcore fan stakes as others have travelled far and wide to be on the hallowed rail, some from Europe or Japan were here again, and like old friends we meet every 3 or 4 years to indulge our craving for the Robinson brothers music. This is the ‘Happiness Bastards’ tour, named after their first album of new material in 15 years which came out a few weeks ago. The brothers have had their fair share of ‘unhappiness’ in the last few years and this album and tour will go some way to settle their differences. They have now learned to live together on and off stage, although there were 2 separate buses in the car park and I was told that they don’t travel together, so maybe all is not completely rosey.
Support is an old friend though, Jim Jones and his All Stars, which are a collection of his musical friends and his wife. Jim Jones was the lead singer in Thee Hypnotics, a band that toured with The Black Crowes on their first full UK Tour in 1991. He is now a pure slice of vintage rock’n’roll and with his boogiewoogie piano player and 2 sax players, he serves up a mish mash brew of some of the funkiest rock and soul music around. ‘Gimme The Grease’ from last years ‘Ain’t No Peril’ album is an example, a drumbeat led tune that demands some merciless maraca shaking, with Jim Jones jumping down into the pit to get that extra reaction from the crowd. I watched him do a similar set at York’s Community Crescent Venue just before last Christmas, so it was no suprise to me how well he was going to go down with a Black Crowes audience. ‘512’ is his staple encore tune from the last 20 years or so and that finished a quick 35 minutes set that literally flew by. Good job I’m here for all 4 shows as I get to witness it every night.
The main event though starts with ‘It’s a long way to the top’ by AC/DC, and fitting as it is a rock tune that describes the perils of being in a band in those difficult early years, I’m not sure it totally fits with the Black Crowes who were thrown into large concert halls and arenas when their debut album ‘Shake Your Moneymaker’ went platinum in the States, they didn’t endure the years of touring in splitter vans and 3 or 4 albums that barely charted before fame finally came along. However, their road has certainly been a rocky one, full of excessive behavior and regular fall outs between the brothers Chris and Rich, and as they now stand together, chatting, laughing and playing off each other, it is clear that something has changed….for the better!
Opening with 2 tracks from the new album ‘Bedside Manners’ and ‘Rats and Clowns’ they clearly came here to promote the’Happiness Bastards’ album, which sounds much more rock’n’roll than their last efforts, but as Chris Robinson said “Don’t worry, we have some old motherf**kers to play too, like this one” – cue brother Rich playing the opening riff of ‘Twice As Hard’ – track 1 side 1 of their debut album.
Chris is sporting a grey and red pin striped suit and shades for the first few songs, but by ‘Twice As Hard’ the glasses are lost and the jacket is coming off, he struts around doing his funky dad dancing and can still twirl that mic stand like a 70’s rock star, the voice is very much intact and he’s no slouch in going for the high throat vocals particularly on ‘She Talks To Angels’ later in the set. His brother Rich Robinson controls the music with nods to his other musicians to say “last bar”, Rich is very much the calm and collected person, the opposite of Chris who is balancing on a cheese wire and could fall off at any moment. Chris also knows how to wind his brother up, usually by getting within 2 feet of him, that usually does the trick.
The 4th and 5th song in the setlist are important to the hardcore fans, those are the slots reserved for something they normally don’t play, tonight we get ‘Gone’ from ‘Amorica’ and ‘Under a Mountain’ from ‘3 Snakes and 1 Charm’, both are favourites of mine and well received by everyone at the front. Time has changed this band though, a few years ago they were a jam band that would extend songs to 10 or 15 minutes, they would play 2 and a half hour sets of different songs each night, and you certainly wouldn’t get ‘the hits’ every night. Now they play a guaranteed set of hits (‘Twice as Hard’, ‘Hard to Handle’, ‘She Talks to Angels’, ‘Jealous Again’, ‘Remedy’ and ‘Thorn in my Pride’) interspersed with new album songs and deeper cuts and covers to please the hardcore fans. This gives a general mixed audience exactly what they want, it is a winning formula albeit distancing somewhat those hardcore fans that want to hear the more obscure, they are playing to a new audience, who will return the next time they are in town.
They do the unthinkable tonight though which is to screw up the intro to a song “You didn’t come here to see that” Chris Robinson shouts, it fires him up for the rest of the set, Rich certainly doesn’t take that lightly either as the hardest stare was given to his guitar tech who quickly gave him another guitar to restart ‘Cross Your Fingers’ which closed with some extra gusto from both brothers. After that some pure rock’n’roll in the shape of a Jerry Lee Lewis tune ‘High School Confidential’. I think Jim Jones has reignited some slow burning embers deep in Chris Robinson psyche inspiring him to add several 1950’s classics to their sets on this tour, they even have a black and white cut out of Chuck Berry on stage with them.
Chris Robinson introduces ‘Thorn in my Pride’ as a dream that they had of starting a band together and the dream is now continuing, it is the only song tonight that they will extend to about 10 minutes with some extra harmonica and riffage from the Robinson brothers, it is a song that they were playing right from their first full UK tour, even before they released the song some years later on their 2nd album ‘Southern Harmony’. Tonight we also get ‘Sting Me’ from the same album and it fires up so many memories of concerts long ago, but the fire and magic is very much still there with these two, and I’m hoping for many more albums and tours before the inevitable end. They have written the soundtrack to my adult life for the best part of the last 35 years and I consider them to be the best Rock’n’Roll band on the planet. You would be crazy or skint to miss them when they play in your area!
Additional Stuff: I went to all 4 Black Crowes concerts in the UK and this was a clear highlight – Steven Tyler from Aerosmith joins the band in London for the encore of Aerosmith’s ‘Mama Kin’ (this is my footage/recording from the front row) Jimmy Page was watching from the side of the stage too.
Setlist: Bedside Manners, Rats and Clowns, Twice as Hard, Gone, Under a Mountain, Cross Your Fingers, Wilted Rose, High School Confidential, Thorn in my Pride, Wanting and Waiting, Hard to Handle, She Talks to Angels, Dirty Cold Sun, Sting Me, Jealous Again, Remedy. Encore: Shake Your Moneymaker
