Road Runner Mobile Amphitheater - Charlotte, NC - 9.18.10

The Black Crowes

Road Runner Mobile Amphitheater

Charlotte, North Carolina
September 18, 2010

Acoustic Set                                                         Electric Set

                                                                               

Remedy                                                          And the Band Played On
Soul Singing                                                   High Head Blues
Hotel Illness                                                   Greasy Grass River
Downtown Money Waster                           Ballad In Urgency>
Good Friday                                                   Wiser Time
Do Right Woman, Do Right Man                 There's Gold in Them Hills
How Much for Your Wings>                        Darling of the Underground Press
Bring On Bring On                                        Jealous Again
Roll Old Jeremiah                                         Go Faster
Welcome to the Goodtimes                         No Speak No Slave
Thorn In My Pride
She Talks to Angels                                     -Encore- 

                                                                      Thick n' Thin 

                                                                      Shake Your Money Maker

Night two of the 3-night run through North Carolina brought the band to the Road Runner Mobile Amphitheater in Charlotte for a Saturday night two-setter out under the moonlight.  This Live Nation-operated venue is located inside the Music Factory, an entertainment compound situated in downtown Charlotte.  As you can see by the layout map it has several options to hit for anyone out and about looking for a little corporate sponsored nightlife.  Tonight, the backside was the place to be.  And no self respecting Black Crowes fan would be caught dead hanging out at Crobar anyway...right?

After a loose Remedy and cruise-controlled Soul Singing opened the evening, it was around the halfway point of Hotel Illness when the laid back and relaxed tone of the first set settled in.  Luther did some fine electric mandolin picking on a straight up Downtown Money Waster that exited quicker than most Money Wasters are known to do, making room for Good Friday...and even though some folks think this song is best played on a Friday night, don't forget that "Saturday is no good because we've got a show."  Lyrical trickery.

The crowd was then presented with a sweet sounding Do Right Woman, Do Right Man  that raises the question, "Why don't they play this one just a little bit more often?"  Last played in Chicago a few weeks prior, this is one that never fails to be exactly what you need every time it comes along.  If we were going to rank the covers over the years that this band sounds best playing - Do Right Woman, Do Right Man  would definitely hold a spot in the Top 20.  We may even get around to putting together the BC Tour Blog's Top 25 (or 50) Black Crowes Covers before the year is over but don't hold us to it just yet - we're still trying to catch up on these show reviews...

Coming on the heels of Do Right, a slightly slowed down and dragging How Much For Your Wings continued the loose vibe of the evening followed by a 5-minute-or-so jam that crossed the bridge to Bring On, Bring On and headed over the hill to a stand-alone Roll Old Jeremiah that included some nice piano playing from Adam and smooth slide work from Luther before the band brought it home following the lead of Gorman's drum rolls.  Welcome to the Goodtimes and She Talks To Angels sandwiched a Thorn In My Pride that had the crowd clapping a beat along to Rich's breakdown that got kicked up a notch as Joe came in talking on the congas.  Chris laid down a fairly short harp solo and got out of the way for everyone to deliver a sort of restrained mini-jam that echoed the laid back nature of the acoustic set.  For anyone asking for shorter Thorns, you couldn't complain about the length of this one.

The electric set started out with a 12-minute And The Band Played On that damn near went into Pink Floyd territory a few times before it was over.  There might even be a dash of the Good Friday chord structure hiding in here somewhere.  If you find yourself working a fat doobie while the band lays down the jam on the end of this one, rest assured there are a lot of people in the world not doing quite as well as you are at that exact moment.  We like the end of And The Band Played On because it doesn't peak with the conventional guitar solo like a lot of jams; it's a piece of music that's going someplace and gets there without any walking on the high wire.

Perfectly followed by High Head Blues, there may not have been a better song selection they could have put in this spot.  Just a spot-on continuation of the mood created by And The Band Played On's jam.  The crowd was pleased.  The jam on this one may not be the freight train that it used to be but it still clocks in and goes to work.  Another underplayed tune, Greasy Grass River, made a welcome appearance in the three slot behind High Head Blues and again raised the question, "Why don't they play this one just a little bit more often?"  The re-worked intro that was introduced in '05 and became a hallmark of that tour is still intact and is another one of those little pieces of Black Crowes music that doesn't sound like anything else in their catalog.  It always sets a tone and puts its toes on the edge of the window ledge before jumping off and slamming into those descending chords that make up the song.  Probably safe to pontificate that this intro would have elevated Lions a bit had it existed back when that album was cut...then again there are a variety of other things you could put on the table that would have elevated Lions...songs like Love Is Now and Bled To Death as opposed to Ozone Mama or Come On, but hey why go there.  What's done is done.  

 

Okay fine, we'll go there.  Here's a quick, off-the-top-of-our-head time machine fix on Lions to take it somewhere it could have gone...

Midnight From The Inside Out

Bled To Death

Lickin' (new chorus)

Losing My Mind (no violins)

Love Is Now

Cypress Tree                          

-----------

Young Man Old Man

Cosmic Friend

Miracle To Me

Soul Singing

Greasy Grass River (w/ vocal intro)

Lay It All On Me 

It's never healthy for Black Crowes fans to look into the past and play the "What if" game, unless you're hoping for an aneurysm but it's impossible not to sometimes.  And no that's not a typo - we left Lickin' in there on purpose because the damn thing has a kick ass riff that is unfortunately haunted by an abominable chorus and some sketchy lyrics.  Musically it's there.  Re-work that one a little and it's good to go on this record.  Anyway, Memory Lane is a dead end street so let's jump off and get back to this Charlotte show from the year 2010.

Ballad In Urgency had a great jam on the end with some killer moments from Rich, Steve and especially Luther, whose tone had some nastiness to it as things wound down on their way into Wiser Time.  Twenty-seven minutes of Ballad > Wiser tonight.  The rarely played There's Gold In Them Hills served as everyone's recovery period and also took home the trophy for slowest song of the night, as the crowd was then treated to a bit of Darling of the Underground Press as a reward for hanging in there.  Jealous Again made a lot of people happy and was followed by an odd late set appearance from four-year absent Go Faster, which made a lot of people go, "Say what?"  Has it really been four years since this one last saw daylight?  Is it back too soon?  Let's not forget, Charlotte is prime Nascar country and Go Faster is apparently on a popular race car video game so maybe it seemed like a good idea to bust it out.  Definitely unexpected, that's for sure.

No Speak No Slave rounded the final turn and closed out the set, as a rough opening to Thick n' Thin kicked off the encore and Shake Your Money Maker crossed the finish line and locked things down to send the people packing.  Wait a minute, has it been a whole year since Shake Your Money Maker was last played?  Wow.  Really?  Next time you're at a Black Crowes show, be sure to fill out a comment card and drop it in the box or hand it to one of the bus drivers.  Make sure you request more blues tunes.  There's a little space on the back of the card titled "Suggestions for the Band" - take advantage of it.  Just don't complain about one of the toilets being clogged at the venue; that's a maintenance issue and is not a band responsibility.

All in all, this was a night sprinkled with a handful of tunes that got dusted off after being on the shelf for a while.  Next stop Pastoral?  How about Grinnin'?  Did we mention that we stopped for gas in a seedy part of town after the show and some dude came up to us talkin' about, "Can't a brother get a Song of the Flesh?  Just one god damn Song of the Flesh?"  We felt his pain.  He was hurtin'.  We bought him a 40, flipped him some change and told him everything was gonna be alright.  That may or may not be a true story.

From the Road Runner Mobile Amphitheater in Charlotte...that's all folks, see you in Asheville.