I love The Black Crowes but I hate the Black Crowes in concert. They used to put on an awesome concert that was just packed full of rock. I have seen 4 (I think) amazing concerts by the Black Crowes, but the last 2 or 3 times that I have seen them it was all about jamming. I am not a fan of jamming. I want to hear all their great songs and not just a few (usually mediocre) songs drug out to 15 minutes. Jamming doesn't usually add anything to a song for me...hearing the same riff over and over with just the slightest variation gets real boring, real quick. I don't mind jamming if they get to the rest of their songs. BCs don't. During a two hour set you may hear two of their hit songs...and that is if you are lucky.
I'm not saying that the rest of their non-hit songs are garbage, they are not. They are decent and there are many hidden gems scattered throughout the Black Crowes discography. However, you'll be lucky to hear those too. BCs tend to play and jam on the songs that I really don't like, making their jamming that much more intolerable (although maybe it is good that they don't molest their good songs?). Their jamming may even be decent at times, not anything profound but decent. However, it doesn't do to the crowd what a good concert should do. There is no energy, no focus, the crowd is just rambling around (like the music). You might not really notice what you are missing until they decide to finally play one of their hit songs. When they play the first chords of Jealous Again or Twice as Hard...they crowd goes crazy and everything is exciting and united. That is what a concert should be. Unfortunately, there is only 5 minutes of this out of a 90-120 minute set. It is such a waste of talent, energy, and potential. The crowd just doesn't walk away with that "wow factor." Walking out the past few shows, the only people that I heard that REALLY enjoyed it were the people that were super high or super drunk.
The radio ads for a Black Crowes show sound so enticing with She Talks to Angels, Jealous Again, Hard to Handle, Remedy, etc...but don't be fooled, I doubt you will hear those. I may have also been spoiled by their early shows which were just incredible.
Yes, I am going to see the Black Crowes again tonight, hoping for a different outcome...
End Hate
2 comments:
.....And??? So? I'm guessing this was more of the same.
I was in a bad mood after work and I didn't end up going because I didn't want to be pissed off. I heard that they had a pretty good mix of jamming versus hits (but the source of that is someone that loves jam bands...so I am not sure if I trust). It atleast sounds like they did play more than one or two hits though.
Another person who was very drunk (so again questionable source) said they played all their hits except for "She Talks to Angels".
So now I am kinda pissed that I didn't go.
Post a Comment