The Black Crowes
Val Air Ballroom
West Des Moines, Iowa
August 17, 2010
Sting Me
Gone
Ballad In Urgency
Wiser Time
Polly
Downtown Money Waster
Thorn In My Pride
She Gave Good Sunflower
By Your Side
She Talks To Angels
Hard To Handle
-encore-
Willin' Then Now
Originally, the 45th Annual Steven Andrew Gorman Birthday Celebration was scheduled for the Simon Estes Amphitheater. Then the Midwest got a bit of rain. And a little more rain. And then it rained some more. Pretty much all of Iowa was flooded. Have you seen the Hilton Coliseum in Ames? Because of all that rain, Fiesta de Steve was moved to the safe and high ground of the Walnut Street Bridge. And then on his magical day, damned if the rain didn't hold up a middle finger salute right to his face and continue its relentless abuse on the innocent. Subsequently, a third move was in order, this time inside to the lovely and historical Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines.
Finally Steve could relax and enjoy his day, while the crew at last had a confirmed destination where they could unload the gear.
This was the fourth show of the tour and the third all-electric set. Yes, that picture of the marquee at the top was in fact taken outside the VAB. Where were these guys when we needed them? Obviously not in West Des Moines that night.
By looking at that group of songs you can see it was a rock show. Anybody who dismisses that set based on the short-sighted "on paper" philosophy is woefully mistaken. Take out Polly (buy her a nice dinner) along with By Your Side and that setlist could pass for a gig straight out of August '95. This is a show that you walk out of drenched in sweat. Since the BC Tour Blog is way behind due to travel, by now you all know there was indeed a Happy Birthday salute played for Steve right before the harp section of Thorn because finally, at last, he's all growns up now. Ballad > Wiser got another workout and Sunflower was dusted off for only the third time in nine months. West Des Moines was also the lucky recipient of the slightly overdue and inevitable Little Feat cover in honor of the recent passing of Mr. Richie Hayward (RIP) in the form of a Willin' encore. Let's see what the people had to say...
Best sunflower ever. Everyone was rocking quite well and the crowd showed their appreciation all night. Good times. I felt sorry for them a little bit - they deserved a bigger aud...the band sounds pretty damn good.
Another happy customer...
You just had to be there. It really was a great night.
And another...
Great show, noticeably longer than the previous two. I think it clocked it in around 130 minutes. Lots of jamming, even Polly had an extended outro.
An honest critique and some advice from 29bb, who was in the house...
Chris's voice was tip top...they were in really good form last night. Just need a little more bite in Luther's tone. Thorn is just too long. I would have preferred that they shave that bad boy off. No reason that song should last more than 10 minutes. Add three more songs to the set (Under A Mountain, Make Glad, Stare it Cold for example). Bottom line though - they brought it and delivered. Totally satisfied with that show.
Rich was playing some unfamiliar gear - but he was rocking. I want to say the amp I saw said Reasoner on it. The other stuff was nondescript with no real names on it.
More gear info from BrainDamage...
That would be Reason. More specifically, a Reason SM50. They're based in St. Louis, and when the Crowes came through last year one of their guys brought Rich an amp to use at soundcheck. Obviously he liked it enough to keep using it, and it took the place of his 65 Amps Royal Albert (at least I think it was a Royal Albert). The other amp he has been using is a white handwired Vox AC30 head + cab.
So there you go gearheads. We're outta here for now. Still a lot of catching up to do as Kansas City, Detroit, Chicago and Columbus are all dangling out there desperately needing to be documented for historical purposes. We'll get there brothers and sisters. Hang loose. Another picture from the Steve Party is below. We'll be back soon...
*As always, we can't leave without mentioning the beer selection for the evening. Inside the Val Air Ballroom, anybody who fancied themselves as the Most Interesting Man in the World no doubt took full advantage of the Dos Equis on tap. If not, you may have enjoyed a bottle of Bud. Ranger IPA was also flowing. Off we go...
I'm glad you are back. I was getting worried the enormity of the task ahead of you had become too daunting. Keep it up, brother (yeah, I'm assuming a dude is writing this, there's no way a girl would geek out this much on setlist critiques, gear and beer), this is some good shit!
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