The Depot - Salt Lake City, Utah - 8.31.10

The Black Crowes

The Depot

Salt Lake City, Utah

August 31, 2010

Midnight From the Inside Out

Gone

Evil Eye

My Morning Song

Stare It Cold

Let It Be Gone

Girl From A Pawnshop                                       

She Gave Good Sunflower

Poor Elijah (Tribute to Robert Johnson)

Shine Along

Twice As Hard

Wiser Time

- encore -

Jealous Again

Willin'

Remedy

How about that for a show opening?  Hello Salt Lake!  There almost seemed to be some kind of message or sentiment being communicated at The Depot tonight, perhaps in regard to where this show was taking place, and if you didn't at least wonder about that then we're guessing you're a card carrying member of Sleepwalkers Anonymous.  Seek help immediately and under no circumstances should you be operating any heavy machinery while you're awake because you may actually be asleep and just not know it.  You may also want to skip the next Black Crowes show you were planning on hitting until you get your mind right because you've just been assigned a night in the box.

Midnight From the Inside Out > Gone > Evil Eye to open the night.  No this was not a Halloween show, but for a Tuesday night in Salt Lake those first three tunes had to cause at least a few locals to head for the can to ditch their soiled drawers.  This is how you make babies cry.  However, there may have been some quiet tears and personal introspection in parts of the room during the singing of these words:

And Jesus can't save you,
though it's nice to think he'd try.
This is not to scare you;
this is to make sense of our time.
Do prophets speak in rhymes?
Then you die!

With roughly 60% of Salt Lake purportedly leaning to the Mormon side of religious persuasion, Evil Eye was probably the most humorous song selection the band could have possibly played.  Perhaps when it began to build, a few locals were wishing they had their wubby.  Evil Eye had been on the shelf for over a year, and Midnight From the Inside Out had been on vacation for two.  Before that show, Midnight had been on the shelf for three years - and while we're not going to test anyone on this later, the fact is that Midnight From the Inside Out has only been played three times in the past five years.  Even thought it leads off on Lions, that stat sort of makes it a rare occurrence to see live these days.  And it wasn't like the My Morning Song > Stare It Cold > Tambourine Music Got To Free Your Mind throwdown that followed let up on anyone.  It was on.  

Let It Be Gone made its third appearance of the tour and gave everyone a chance to regroup after being manhandled out of the gate.  Girl From a Pawnshop came whispering in for the fourth time this year and gave Luther another hall pass to go off.  She Gave Good Sunflower, which declares "I feel warm in your blizzard and your flood I crave," was unveiled to the world on the night of October 25, 1994 when Amorica was premiered.  On August 31, 2010, Sunflower was unveiled to the city of Salt Lake and the state of Utah for the first time.  It had never been played live there before, if you can believe that.

Poor Elijah came next and got an extension, as it has been given lately, which towards the end of the song can sometimes turn into one of the more exploratory jams the band takes off on these days.  After Rich takes his part for a couple of minutes and then turns to the rest of the band, they find a limb and go out on it.  Some versions of the Elijah jam truly feel like a group of musicians all playing off of, listening to and following one another, seeing where it goes and letting it take them there, no matter how long or short the journey.  Those are the moments some of us wait for, when it's as if the song told its old lady, "Honey I'm going out for milk and bread" and just never came back.  Except in this case, Elijah came back.  It always does.  It takes a while sometimes, and that's a good thing, but it comes home eventually.

Afterward came the wistfully content beauty Shine Along, which had yet to make an appearance this tour.  We're not sure where it's been, especially considering the acoustic set possibilities that exist for Until the Freeze tunes; nevertheless it came rolling out for the first time since the Fillmore last year.  Twice As Hard and a good long Wiser Time closed out the set, which by this time had added up to be a pretty damn good rock show.  Where else would you rather be on a Tuesday night?  For the encore tonight - a three song helping of Jealous Again, Willin' and Remedy.  Once Willin' began, it might have seemed like the night would end on a mellow note, but the band was innocent of all such charges and busted out a full throttle Remedy to send everyone packin'.  That was it.  Good night Salt Lake.  Thanks for coming.  Thoughts?

Vibe was great. Crowd was good for the most part, but it never fails...I ran into a drunk asshole who tried to start shit saying I was condescending him.

Don't con-den-sen me man. 

Adam soloed for 45 seconds on WT, then Luther and Rich went at it for a solid 6-8 minutes...it was easy to forget Adam, compared to previous versions. Elijah was the centerpiece, well over 10 minutes there too...

Here's a happy guy...

My 15th show and believe it or not my first STARE IT COLD and Willin'. I think the best crowd reaction of the night was when they went into the "hoedown" portion of MMS out of SIC.  The show was good enough that my friends and I decided in the parking lot after to hit the Vegas show.

And another happy gentleman, this one trekked over from St. Louis...

This show by far was the most killer opening 4 songs in row. I gave it a 9. Great venue and good times. On Rich's side on the rail I got the power progressions that I will remember for a long time to come. Midnight/gone/evil was just incredible. Willin awesome! Nice hanging with Folk from SLC. IT WAS A GREAT SHOW. 

That's all folks.  Time to move it on down the line to Missoula.  Before we go, here's an interview with Rich for your reading pleasure where he talks about the first show the band ever played in Salt Lake and a stage diver that managed to etch himself in the band's memory forever.  If you're into reading amusing show reviews, here's one from a guy who made us laugh.   Off we go.