First time seeing the Black Crowes for me was August 15, 1992. The Crowes performed a free show at G. Ross Lord Park in Toronto, Ontario to celebrate the 15th birthday of our local radio station Q107. It was packed… and we wiggled our way towards the soundboard. When we got there some of the members of the Kids In The Hall were right beside us. 16 Years later …Kids In The Hall member Mark Mckinney walked right past us out front of Massey Hall.

I saw them again in 2005 at the Kool Haus with my wife and we loved the show. It was a real Rock and Roll concert. So for this show I asked a good friend of mine to say a few words about his take on The Black Crowes at Massey Hall……………..  Jeff

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Yeah, Seeing Things For The First Time

It is customary that when reviewing a concert that the reviewer be very familiar with the band’s catalogue and history, citing songs played and the albums they are from etc.  I am not familiar enough with the Black Crowes to be able to do that, like many I remember them being very big in the early nineties with Shake Your Money Maker, and although I know they have continued to produce albums and tour I paid them little notice except for the occasional news story about their front man marrying that famous girl.  I’d heard enough however to know that they were a live act worth hearing and since I no longer attend as many concerts as I once did I tend to be a little more selective about who I see.  The Black Crowes were near the top of my list containing ‘bands I haven’t seen but would like to’, add Massey Hall to the equation and there I was.

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I missed the opening act unfortunately and when I found my seat I noticed immediately the smell of incense, it was like visiting that cool hippie friend that always has incense burning.   A large man standing behind a soundboard on stage left introduced them as “Your friends, the Black Crowes.”  The band sauntered out in the most relaxed stage entrance I have ever seen, the house lights were still on when they were strapping on the guitars.  The reception was warm from a crowd made up mostly it seems of people who had been paying attention these 15 or so years.  Even before the first note was struck it was apparent that this was going to be a no frills, here’s our tunes kind of set.

The sound in Massey Hall is outstanding and well suited to a rock show.  The Crowes seemed right away to be able to pump it out loud and have it land soft.   They are a band of delicate balance:  their not-too-hard-edge bluesy sound makes their tunes easy to like on first listen and they don’t rely on hooks. They are a guitar band but the guitars aren’t rammed down the audiences throat and are balanced nicely with keyboard/piano/organ.  They are a jam band but each time they go into one they seem to have a direction and aren’t just masturbating like many artists tend to with solos that last for days.

Chris Robinson’s singing style is effective and fits in nicely with the players behind him.  His voice is like another instrument and he accents certain lyrics and notes to compliment the arrangement.  As a showman he has a little bit of Jagger but very little.  He moves like Mick only a great deal less.  During instrumental parts and solos he would drift back in front of the drum kit and move in own subdued groove.  One funny moment I noticed was when he knocked over the mic stand, often times you’ll see a stagehand scamper out and prop it up again.  In this case the large man behind the board on stage left walked slowly, deliberately, and seemed generally pissed off at having to carry out this task.  I’m pretty sure he stopped and was giving Chris the stink-eye over it.  Robinson seemed unaware of the incident and just carried on his low-fi dance.

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I confess that I was hoping for one song to be on the set list.They did play Wiser Time and I loved it, but I enjoyed each song they played and can’t wait to hear them again in October when they come to Buffalo.

Sean B.

Security asked me twice to stop video taping with my camera. I was not happy at all….but made it thru almost 5 minutes of Wisertime.

TRIVIA

Robinson made a cameo appearance (playing an angel) in the final episode of the popular sketch show The Kids in the Hall in 1994. According to the The Kids in the Hall Season 5 DVD commentary, Robinson met Kate Hudson at live Kids in the Hall performance during their 2000 reunion tour.

More Black Crowes Photos - Slideshow on Flickr

Seconds before the start of this concert I decided to head up front near the stage. As I got within a few feet of the right corner I noticed a piece of the stage that was calling me. “Come over here and lean on me… and feel the music” So I did.

What a good move this proved to be as Dark Side Of The Moon started to unfold around me. This performance crept up on me, then behind me and finally back into the depths of my music sweetspot. Never have I stood here in the 5 years of coming to the Phoenix. Speak To Me and Breathe… drew me in… easily just on lead vocals alone. Rob Philips has Floyd in is blood. He kind of gives off that feeling that if someone missed their vocal he could do 2 voices at the same time… or if a drum beat was missed he would tap his guitar somehow and make it all sound ok. The baahaa’s and mumbling in the background always sounds so right. Standing right in front of Mr sound-fx himself it was nice to catch the vocal contribution from Murray up close as he and Leslea layered into the songs where required.

For those who wonder how Classic Albums Live recreate some of the unique sounds when doing Floyd… this video will allow you to peek into the FX side show abit. The “breathing” and “running” right out of the gates…. Alarm clocks at 3:10 ….then Leslea bangs away on the bass drum at 3:59… followed by the zoom in around the 4:57 minute mark for some fun with Troy.

If that didn’t kick you in the Floyd Trousers this sure will… I couldn’t put my camera down. Leslea walked back out for Great Gig in The Sky.

I’ve seen this done before…but I’ve never felt it. How deep do you dig Leslea in order to draw out what is needed to present this sort of magic? I mean at the risk of sounding un-manly or maybe manly… ah you told a story with this song I’ve never heard….zoomed in at 1:30 or so.. your eyes glossed over… I got it. I got the rest of the song too…

( I would tell anyone with highspeed to watch this video on “high quality” - the option is just below the right side on the youtube site here or watch above here.)

Side 2 started off with Money featuring some nice bass and allowed for some recovery from the Great Gig experience. I love “Us and Them” ..organ, piano, sax …soothing vocals. The band is just hitting their stride here and I would like to say the crowd was loving it all except I never turned around and was to zoned in to notice. …as the album heads towards the finish line… the vocals seem to get even better. Leslea just as serious about these parts of the album as her solo… Lindsay on Keyboards really anchoring down the entire arrangement at all times. So nice… and again Rob while not missing a beat on lead vocals adds in the Lunitic’s giggle… deadly guitar and this CAL team continues to all pull out their hammers and nail this version of Dark Side Of The Moon right where we wanted it.

The final 5 minutes of the album…

As for the talk over at the Classic Albums Live Forums the feedback regarding encore choices was mixed..which seem to bring out the musicians and producer Craig Martin to respond. We are lucky as fans of this series that we many times get to here about what happened at a show or even help persuade which albums get done or not.

For me as a music lover… I like good music…and when The Final Cut was pulled out I quite enjoyed it. Partially because I do not know it that well and also due to the fact that I’ve heard Comfortably Numb and Mother a 1000 times before. It was obvious Rob loved doing this one and it really got me into it… I even flipped the video on for this one….

Now you dive into “DOGS” and I am out of video… cool time to enjoy even more. I chewed this up like I had just come off a “fast”… everyone barking, the whining guitar and whodini on the keys.. it was all delicious…Funny during the last 1:40 or so of DOGs I was looking at Rob and watching him play but grooving to something else…I glance over and I am bobbing my head to the Bass Players production… I never noticed this simple part before in the song.. sometimes i don’t pay enough attention to the bass (I forget) well I caught this moment in time and glued in on Schnitzy’s fingers for the entire finish to this tune. I loved it. Loved it.

So I saw some Pink Floyd “radio listeners” leave at this point and turned around to see some others yelling out “Haha, charade you are” …

I swear I didn’t hear the “pig oinking” at the beginning of Three Different Ones and there were some cackles in Dogs with the equipment… but at this point the show was already picking up Junos so who cares.

The final David Gilmour “There’s No Way Out Of Here” is a song I may have heard one or twice before .. it was no DOGS… but I still really enjoyed hearing it and it reminds me that there is other music out there besides “The Wall”

Bottom Line - walk up front and touch the stage next? week.

Fearless-Jeff

More Dark Side of The Moon Photos over here

Aerosmith by Classic Albums Live

I had a front row seat for Grand Funk Railroad for Friday night this week in Niagara Falls. So I was not planning on going to this Aerosmith show. With plans to go north for 4 days… Two shows in a row before you back up the family is a tough juggle so I gave my front row to a friend who lives close by the venue and decided to get my guitar injection before going to cottage country with Classic Albums Live’s presentation of “Toys In The Attic” and “Rocks“.

I bolted downtown and skipped by the guy selling fake $10 tickets out front. The light crowd tonight only means I stand closer than usual. Aerosmith was never heavy on roatation in my teen years and to be honest I probably know very little about this era of Aerosmith. Other then Walk This Way, Last Child and Sweet Emotion I don’t know every little riff and lyric like many of the other shows I see from CAL representing Classic Rock. In the end it didn’t really mater because I got what I get on every visit to a Classic Albums Live Show… I got Rocked! You get to stand in front of Journeymen for the price of double martini. It’s a steal every month and the hardcore fans know it.

Side 1 was when I realized.. “hey I don’t know all of this”… but holy-raw-garage-rock…man… we’re not talking about Love In An Elevator kinda rock either. So I was being schooled in early Aerosmith and most of all got to see, feel and hear what surrounded “Walk This Way” and Sweet Emotion”.

Sweet Emotion hit… and it hit HARD! Ya I know it’s a radio staple and all but Dom had that talk-box guitar action bang on along with the rest of the band showing off their teeth to each other! This was that one number by Aerosmith that when it came on while in the car…back in the day… we turned it up and shut up. (and drove a little faster) - This was beautiful.

Sure the Aerosmith I know was off later albums which seem to make me watch even closer and got me wondering how close the songs I didn’t know were to the album. This was raw stuff and I liked it. The players were having fun. The stage was full. We got to see the mini orchestra in the back compliment the rock show up front with inspiring vocals from a front man who was built to last.

Learning about Classic Albums…

There is a backdoor reason to why I enjoy these shows. I learn from them. There are albums and songs I thought I knew well and didn’t. Sometimes I revisit the material before a show or even do some research behind the album’s theme, lyrics etc. Other times it makes me pick an album or group up for listening again.

Back In The Saddle and Last Child were a great back to back combo. Last Child for me was always a favourite from back in high school. Not sure why… just loved that funky beat and Tylers vocal delivery is stellar… Here is the CAL (cowbell heavy) version……

On side 2 of ROCKS…Phil Naro mentioned that Nobody’s Fault was his favourite. So I figured he would hit this one out of the park. So I grabbed the video for this one even though I really didn’t know it. Loud. Yes…. This was one of those one’s that blows your hair back like in that old Maxell tv commercial. So when I got home I searched for this song on youtube so I could hear it and listen to Aerosmith do it.. I found it and watched it along side the video I took of this song. WOW. Deadly song. Yes I played both videos at the same time.… and came up with some interesting moments.

If you want to get into the experiment that I did for a few minutes I have put the original Aerosmith video below the Nobody’s Fault version by Classic Albums Live musicians also so you can try and sync them up.

The outcome is not perfect all the way thru… but here are the times you can try and sync up to check out what I was playing with.

Set Video 1 at the .25 second mark and keep on pause.

Set Video 2 at the .23 second mark and keep on pause.

Then hit the play button on video 1 first and quickly go right to video 2 and click play right away. You can pause one or the other to try and get things right but if you hit this the way I describe above from .25sec to 1:30 or so the versions are very close! There they float away from each other abit until exactly 3:20.

If you can get both videos running from 3:20 and on... the final screams from Tyler and Naro are deadly followed by some crazy guitar syncros until the end.

While doing this experiment I just realized after 10-15 listens that I could hear where a Motley Crue may have got some influence … along with a handful of other bands including Slash who has mentioned it was his favourite tune from the Toxic Twins.

From the guitarist on the left to the cowbell on the right and then straight back thru smiling JB-Bass-man and Sascha on drums…this line-up stepped up and brought layers of hard edged rock to the Phoenix.

I enjoyed the show as well as learning more about Aerosmith’s early years.

Jeff

To see more of our photos from the show visit our Flickr Page here

Upcoming shows for the Classic Albums Live Series here