Chicago Theatre - Chicago, Illinois - 8.21.10

The second night of a two-fer of double setters brought us to the Windy City of Chicago on a Saturday night.  It was one of those great weather days on Saturday in Chicago that puts you in a good mood from that first moment you walk outside, knowing that when the sun goes down in a few hours you're going to get another three hours of music at the end of your day.


So on to the Chicago Theatre did the people go.  After a surprisingly undersold Fillmore/State Theatre the previous night in Detroit, the CT was filling up fast when we walked in and eventually grew to a full house Saturday night.


With Soul Singing starting to establish itself as one of the preferred set openers on the tour so far, we've seen it kick off the electric set in Detroit and the full electric show in KC already this week.  Tonight it opened the acoustic portion of the show.  No matter what city it gets played in, when the crowd hears Rich start the opening to Soul Singing, people get happy.  It's not carrying the weight that it did with previous versions on this tour; the jam has been set aside for now, and as a set opener on either end it's a great way to not only appease the casual fans but also to get it out of the way for the diehards who are eager to swim on to deeper waters.


Another tune getting a lot of run so far has been Hotel Illness, with Steve out front banging his big bass drum, and tonight we saw for the first time since May 2, 2005 someone other than Steve Gorman behind the drum kit on stage with the band.  Joe Magistro sat down on Steve's stool, grabbed a pair of sticks and suddenly a new element to the tour was introduced:  Musical Drum Chairs.  By the way, if you didn't click on that link over Joe's name, do it and check out his new thing, Prophet Omega.  Dude made an entire record playing a bunch of instruments by himself and singing.  That's some serious ambition.  You can listen to clips and buy the album here or check out his myspace and listen to full length tracks.  This should definitely open people's eyes to how talented Joe is and will probably appeal to just about any Crowes fan who is reading this.

Back to the show...

 
As I remarked to my traveling partner during the opening bars of Good Friday, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Rich needs to be turned up."  Yes folks, in Chicago it finally happened.  In what may go down as the first and last time ever in this history of this band, Rich Robinson was not turned up loud enough in the mix.  Now, we're not pointing fingers at the crew running the board or anything like that, we're just saying.  No, nobody behind the rig is up for a job performance review and we're not trying to get anybody fired; we're just saying.  As the acoustic set moved on, things quickly improved and we were given our first Do Right Woman, Do Right Man since December 18, 2008 at the Fillmore.  You can always tell the women who know this song because you see a few turn and look right at their boyfriends, husbands and lovers when Chris sings, "If you want a do right all day woman, you gotta be a do right all night man."  And ain't that the truth.


Speaking of songs that have been on the shelf a while, when was the last time you saw My Heart's Killing Me in the set?  Don't remember?  How about October 27, 2008 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.  Up to this point, that's the longest vacation a song has had that's been brought out of storage on this tour, and it couldn't have fit in any better in the acoustic set.  Winding down, we got the always welcome acoustic Thorn and a She Talks To Angels capper.  Thorn acoustic is just fun; you get the sense during the breakdown that nobody really knows what Rich is going to do, including him, or how long he's going to go, and when he starts you get to really watch him play.  There are runs and licks in there you've heard him play before but in an acoustic setting during that portion of Thorn it's a full on Rich jam.  Everybody on stage is watching; you should have seen Luther's face.  They're all into it.


After the break, the electric set opened with the Morning Song > Stare It Cold > Morning Song gospel tambourine march up to heaven, and away we went.  Luther's take on Stare It Cold is different, just like Adam's take on Descending or Wiser Time is different, but the song is still there.  After church let out, if anybody in the house saw the next three songs coming, I'd like to meet 'em.  A staple of 2007, Isn't It About Time, popped up early out of nowhere for the first time since Richmond, Va in October of 2008.  Then, if you wiped the look of surprise off your face in time after that, you got another shocker with the rarely played Dirty Hair Halo, which caused some to say "Whoa" and others to high five.  That backwards guitar sound is like an acid flashback to the sounds they were making as the High as the Moon tour wound down and opened a new door for the band as the Tall era washed in.  I'm talking about this time period here and sounds like the ones Rich was making at the 5:55 mark of this.  Chicago has seen two Dirty Hair Halos now and clearly owns the franchise.  This song was recorded in '93 in multiple studio sessions and has only been played live eight times in the band's history.  If you're looking for rare tunes when you go to a Crowes show, there you go.  

After that eyebrow raiser, Make Glad was an unpredictable follow up that came in nicely, followed by Descending and a jammed out Girl From the North Country.  GFTNC got a work out.  This was where you were reminded how heavy these electric sets have been on jamming so far.  Some songs are just getting manhandled and bludgeoned and several times we haven't seen it coming.  If there's ever been a longer GFTNC played than this one, let us know.  At one point I believe the voice in my head said, "Damn, they are going off on this."  And they were.



Enjoy this clip, because you're probably going to see less and less of these as the tour moves on.  



Ballad into Wiser was a great way to end the set, with Adam playing those six notes at the end of Ballad that open the door for the flotation device that is the sonic bridge between Ballad and Wiser.  Some people like to close their eyes during this piece of music, and that's not a bad idea sometimes.  You can watch what's going on on stage all you want but if you really want to get lost and let yourself go, let your ears take over and block everything else out.  Try it some time.  You'll hear things with your eyes closed that you wouldn't with your eyes open.

The electric set ended a little earlier than expected, which might be why we all got a surprising three song encore of Remedy, Thick n' Thin and Don't Do It.  Nobody was complaining.  Fantastic ending to a fun night of curveballs and sliders that gave the people something to talk about on their way out the door.  We've said it before and we'll say it again: If you're a fan of this band, you need to get to as many of these two setters as you can.  The door is wide open every time and you never know what will come walking in.  There's a lot of room for the band to move and a lot of time to fill and it looks like more and more surprises are waiting down the road.  We're only one week in at this point and it's just going to keep getting better.


The beer selection tonight?  Chicago's own Goose Island 312.  That's all we had in our hand all night.  If you think people who talk to their beers are weird, you might be right.  If you think it's not slightly amusing to whisper "let it be gone" as you take your last sip, well you'd be wrong.  On to Columbus...