Voodoo Lounge - Kansas City, Missouri - 8.18.10

The Black Crowes

Voodoo Lounge at Harrah's Casino

North Kansas City, Missouri

August 18, 2010

Soul Singing                                

Jealous Again

Hotel Illness

Girl From a Pawnshop

Greasy Grass River                                                           

Wounded Bird

Dolphins

Thorn's Progress -> Thorn In My Pride

Lady of Avenue A

Wiser Time

Remedy

-encore-

She Talks To Angels

Tied Up and Swallowed

Fourth trip for the band to the Voodoo Lounge in the past five years.  Yeah sure, this was a casino show...and casino shows tend to be like having Chinese food for dinner.  The meal is over and there you are walking out the door but somehow you just don't quite feel satisfied.  However, as we mentioned in a previous post, things happen in Kansas City when the Crowes come to town.  Songs that have never been played live before are debuted, the power goes out, more songs are debuted, and if you want to reach a bit...you could even say rare covers of recent years find their way back among the bubbling fountains and BBQ of KC.  Yes, technically Kansas City is known as the City of Fountains...but usually when you roll through you spend more time eating BBQ than you do looking at water sprinkling out of a baby's penis onto an innocent frog.

So what weird unpredictable thing went down this time in KC you ask?  How about the first Tied Up and Swallowed in a year - as a show closer no less - that nobody saw coming?  For those that are counting, that's only the fourth time this lineup has played the song together live.  Hello Kansas City. 

There were other moments nobody would have predicted.  Greasy Grass River?  Hadn't seen the light of day since the Fillmore last year.  The Dolphins?  Hadn't seen the light of day since the Fillmore last year, same night.  Lady of Avenue A?  Hadn't seen the light of day since the Fillmore last year, next to last night.

So why mention all of these, even though they aren't considered "rare" songs?  Simple.  Because Joe Crowe fan is so quick to glance at a set and shrug it off without thinking about it.  Unless he sees a show that opens with Pastoral followed by The Fear Years in the two hole and then gets his ears blown back later in the set with Grinnin', Exit, Bewildered and Name Like Music, he isn't happy...and even if he gets those all in one show he'd still want Words You Throw Away, Spider in the Sugar Bowl Blues (proper), Thunderstorm 6:54pm and Song of the Flesh in a balls deep four-song encore free-for-all.  That's what Joe Crowe fan wants.  Jane Crowe wants it too, and she wants it bad, which is kind of the point about the Kansas City show:  Sometimes you have to appreciate the little surprises even though you hope for the big ones.

Another treat so far this tour has been the return of Thorn's Progress and KC got one.  Are you kidding?  How good does this thing still sound when it comes around?  This isn't a song; it's a suite - and Rich is killing it.  There are peaks, valleys, turns, whispers, screams and driving dive bombs that all make up what is unquestionably one of the finest compositions he has ever written.  Thorn's Progress is the quintessential Black Crowes live performance.  It always does something different.  It grew and grew and grew during the High as the Moon Tour and continues to sprout new barnacles and fungus to this day.  When it gets played it's like feeding a Gremlin after midnight and then dumping it in the pool.  Shit happens.  If you're not appreciating it when you see it, you're lost.  The mutation of Progress in KC on this particular night included Chris on guitar throughout for 10+ minutes.  So there's another feather in the first time KC weirdness cap.  Get the tape.

Was it a perfect show?  No.  A lot of people got confused during Dolphins and probably had no idea what they were hearing.  It's unlikely that Lady of Avenue A was what some in the crowd wanted after the nearly 30-minute onslaught of the Thorn suite but as has been the case every night, when Wiser Time starts, the room is almost unanimously in approval and turns happy.  By now everyone should be up to speed on the M.O. of this tour: You're going to get the favorites.  Expect them.  As the bus rolls on down the road, you're going to get more nuggets in there too.  Did I mention the closer was Tied Up and Swallowed?

No messageboard comments for this show...but here's a review by some guy with plenty of fan comments afterward.  And here's another review by some freelance hack that's worth a chuckle.  No pictures.  How about a video of Tied Up and Swallowed filmed from the front row with an on-board mic that's getting pummeled?



*Beer selection at the Voodoo?  Everything.  Tonight we had Corona.  And Corona.