Concert Reviews, Photos, Videos and Rock and Roll Stories from fans who love live music

…….I have just been getting into the new BLACK CROWES album BEFORE THE FROST…UNTIL THE FREEZE … right away I notice a lot of pedal steel and some pretty traditional sounding country & country blues stuff… I look over the digital insert and there is this picture of the band sitting / standing outside the entrance to a beautiful log cabin. Man, that said it all it made so much sense the whole sound!  Strange how just a single picture can capture the entire “feel” of the album. I got to dig deeper!!

…..I am not a huge fan of casino shows for a number of reasons but lately, I am seriously liking, Casino Rama. I don’t want to give away a great secret but there is not a single band that plays this venue that you can’t get to the stage front to enjoy the entire show. I have always had great rock & roll luck and tonight isn’t any different.

There are some gems on the new album and we got a lot of them. The set list was somewhat short, only 14 songs half of which were from the new album.

With the incense wafting out across the floor, the lights go down & out come a great band, stoned, ready to jam and jam they did!!  The show opens with 2 new songs GOOD MORNING CAPTAIN followed by AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. Not my jump out favorites yet but so nice to be hearing these new songs so soon after the release of the album. Get this!!  Third tune in – HOTEL ILLNESS – which is just killer!!  We are posted stage front right in front of Richs’ stack of Vox amps. The sound here is excellent!! Nothing but pure rock guitar coming through these classic amps!  All through the guitar change ups and the effects the sound held perfectly. Forgeting that there was 4800 people behind me I just leaned in against the stage getting sound like the stack was plugged into to my own basement!!

The song SOUL SINGIN, from LIONS and then 2 more new tunes back to back, SO MANY TIMES and GARDEN GATE. I enjoyed Garden Gate the most out of these 2. I had been hoping they would play the new tune GREENHORN. This song is an instant classic just way too beautiful!!  We get another LIONS tune OZONE MAMA and 3 more new ones I AIN’T HIDING, APPOLOOSA and SHINE ALONG.

I have to admit Appaloosa didn’t hit me until I heard it live. What a great song!  We got some nice video of Shine Along which is really starting to kick for me as well. I think for the number of times I have been through the new album the number of songs jumping put is quite high. These brothers and this band harmonize nicely!! By the way the new album has 21 tunes on it. What great value!! There is some very “live” sounding material on the new BEFORE THE FROST by “live” I mean it appears it has been recorded as the band played as group in the studio and there is obviously an audience at the end clapping cheering etc… I haven’t got through all the liner notes yet so maybe that will explain.

….8 plus minutes of WISER TIME do I have to say anything more about this one! This is one tune that doesn’t need to be re-invented but they have the last couple of tours and it’s stellar everytime. Close your eyes and groove!!

The band takes a break form the main set come back with the encore. ….SHE TALKS TO ANGELS

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…then we get F***IN’ REMEDY!! What a closer!!

All in all a great show!! The entire sound was awesome. Sometimes you have to hand it to sound guys as they can really make a show. The harmonizing I enjoyed this outing better than I did WARPAINT at Massey Hall July 2008. I know you know…. but the Crowes get into these gorgeous jams that just get you swaying with your eyes closed sinking into these plush grooves!!!  We scored a drum stick and a set list. My set list read OH SWEET NUTHIN’ which would have been pretty sweet but REMEDY was what got played as the final tune. Just missed a pick! Maybe next time!  Here is to the Cabin Fever Winter Tour 2009!!

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Another partial video we shot with the camera sitting on the stage…

Leave us a comment below if you were at this show or others this tour!

Were there any tapers at this show? Get in touch. Love to have the show here.

It could have been 1 of several things that brought Eddie Vedder out to centre stage well before the opening band was scheduled to start tonight’s Pearl Jam show at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto. The first being that as Eddie Vedder said Ted Leo of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists was not available as of yet and “we would have to improvise”. The second is that EV is a good guy and would love to fill the seats with people to watch Ted Leo before PJ fills them, or lastly he just freakin loves Toronto and the Legacy of Neil Young!  Who cares it’s all probably true but loving Neil Young, as Eddie obviously does has him out early and meandering through Neil’s Sugar Mountain & The Needle and the Damage done.  Just crazy awesome!! I was up walking around between the 300′s and the 400′s which at this point were basically empty I just plunked down and caught Sugar Mountain on video and was blown away by EV doing these Neil Young gems. The goose bumps were already happening!!

There isn’t gong to be enough words to describe the show. Pearl Jam were simply spectacular!! I have been going to shows for 35+ years now and I got to tell this show has to be in my top 10! Believe it or not probably I’ve done 500+ shows and this was my first live experience with Pearl Jam .  Although I did manage to catch the Eddie Vedder solo outing last year at Massey Hall. (bonus gem here)  Not sure why I never caught the full band… I have everything they put out, plus a bunch of boots and I’m seriously liking the new tune The Fixer with the Ska feel. Eddie Vedder even sounds happy on the tune.

Right out of the box – Of The Girl a nice rockin noddler to get us feeling good and ready for what was in store…then Corduroy nice!! Were just getting started…. I’m in the 100′s now 5 rows back just to McCready’s side. The crowd is ballistic!! I heard the venue was over sold  by 4000. I got to tell you Pearl Jam has to be the toughest tickets to get. I heard a scalper sell two $40 lawns for $500. Nuts!  I mean I didn’t’ see a decent 200 level, never mind a 100 anywhere. I entered with a 400 level and ended in the second row by the encore.  Severed Hand and were in the stratus sphere some where …Yield and Pearl Jam got a lot of air time.

The new tune The Fixer sounds nice live. EVEN FLOW… comes in there like a freight train of rock ….it is like a blur in here now…Given to Fly…. I think Eddie Vedder mentioned they don’t get this out there much live or it could have been Faithful…. Around Unemployable EV gave a little story about “how amusing it must be to watch the country down under us” he used the current health debate going on in the USA to suggest it must be like watching a “dog chase its own tail” then he changed the story a little and mentioned it maybe kind of like have a distinguished guest over to your house for dinner like Neil Young then referring to him as Uncle Neil – like having “Uncle Neil over for dinner and the dog like starts to lick its own asshole”!

½ Full comes across heavy, way heavier then the album version could ever do!!  This could of went on forever I was gone!!  Mike is on fire!! The whole band is crazy!! The run of inside Job (with the keyboards turned up nicely) and Mike screaming some nice stuff.. and then Wishlist just to cool down before the rockoutfest of Black and Alive back to back was unreal. The Black fading guitar outro was another awesome standout!!

At one juncture during the rock out in Alive the band comes together in front of the drum kit – Mike playing the big double necked Gibson – they are this finely tuned rock machine churning, humming, powerful – Eddie Vedder rams his head for a moment into Mike McCready’s chest ! Wild to watch!! McCready throws out a handful of guitar picks and I manage to snag one!!  MC changes his shirt a couple of time and at one point he comes out wearing a Kiss Alive tee shirt – classic stuff!!

The band cools it out again with Wasted (reprise)… I think it was during this tune or at the conclusion EV come and points to – then leans over and hands the guy directly in front of me and one seat to the right a tambourine !! The vibe all around was beautiful!

………………………..The weather was working the music so amazing!! The crowd literally going insane here… the sing along with Betterman (video) was huge!! Eddie Vedder let it go for awhile then comes to the mike and says” that was pretty f**kin’ good”!! I kind of remember Porch but don’t ….I mean I was in this surreal place where this band had taken me.

They were playing so tight and the magic was really flowing. I didn’t want the show to end and end it had to and fittingly so with the encore being Neil Young’s Rockin’ in The Free World!! What a blast!! If there was a second it would be a no brainer to head on down!! This is definitely 2 hours I’d love to relive over and over again!!

Set List for the evening in Toronto with Pearl Jam…..

Front Side of Mike McCready’s Guitar Pic

BETTERMAN from Toronto

More Pearl Jam Videos from Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre

Concertaholics Photos on Flickr

LEAVE US A COMMENT from this show or any other this Tour

This was the first show I have ever gone to at a casino. The vibe is certainly not conducive to a rock show. I guess it may not be fair to judge this by a single show, however, this one certainly felt like something was missing. Don’t get me wrong there were great moments like Stephen Stills doing Bluebird and stuff like Southern Cross, but there is an all business “feel” to the whole process around the show. Heavy casino security, not being able to have a drink inside the venue except for water, in quick out quick, the length of show and even the fact of the band (Graham Nash) acknowledging the “captive” audience.

At any rate as I said there were highlights and the big ones for me came from Stephen Stills.  The guy can still play a mean guitar and harmonize with the best of them. In fact he is one of the best ones!

The show started with Helplessly Hoping and You Don’t Have to Cry. I felt these were mellow enough to let the band warm up the vocals and ease into the show. Graham Nash said “we would like to play some songs from friends of ours” and the band went into The Stones Ruby Tuesday. This came off very nicely and at the conclusion because the crowd reaction was so “blah” Nash came back to microphone and said “that was from The Rolling Stones” < I assume to generate some reaction, and Stills pipes in with, “because, they need the money”.  At least this got the crowd laughing a little.

It wasn’t until Guinevere that I really began to hear David Crosby clearly. I am not sure if he was just really warming until this point or what, but his magic kicked about here. They rolled through Marrakesh Express and did a really nice version of Uncle John’s Band that was rolled out with Graham mentioning Jerry Garcia as a friend. It really started to feel like a serious rock show when they played Long Time Gone. I mean this was awesome, a definite highlight!! If I closed my eyes it could have been Buffalo Springfield playing during Bluebird. In fact I did and it was!! Southern Cross was another Stills gem. The tempo felt a little rushed but the extended finish on this was so, so good!  I have to mention at some before Southern Cross someone in the audience yelled out “Southern Cross” Crosby walked to the microphone and said, ” do you really think we would do a set without playing Southern Cross” then he motioned like are you nuts with his doing counter clock-wise circles around the sides of his head. This was another odd moment. Wooden Ships what can you say? Pull out the first CSN album put it on and you are gonna know “exactly” what I am saying.

I go to shows to be taken away somewhere that music can only take me and this got me there!! I scored a setlist from the sound board guys who were more than kind of friendly as we spoke abut their journey with these amazing musicians. The list reads For What it’s Worth but that was changed during the show to Our House, which of course was the sing along song. They finished off with Teach Your Children which went over nicely. The entire show ran less than 90 minutes. The security was all over my camera so I only managed a couple of shots, so forget about video. As I said there were highlights but the entire “casino” vibe has me rethinking a couple of other shows I have tickets for at Casino Rama this summer. Then again row 2 for LIVE can’t be that bad!