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| The Black Crowes @ The Venue at Thunder Valley Casino (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The Black Crowes brought their Southern rock and harmonies to The Venue at Thunder Valley Casino outside of Sacramento on Saturday night and put on a fun show that demonstrated the band’s greatness has fully returned with the end of family and band feuds.
The concert began with a clear demonstration of how much better the Robinson Brothers – lead singer Chris and lead guitarist Rich – were getting along. Right as he hit the first notes on his guitar, Rich stopped and the band followed suit. “That’s one for Rich!” Chris exclaimed. “That’s on him.” The guitar tech scrambled to get the right guitar, but as Rich hit the first notes of “Sting Me”, it was quickly clear he was not on the same page as the rest of the band, as everything once again came to a halt.
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| Chris & Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes @ The Venue (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“That’s two for Rich!” Chris said as the rest of the band all held up two fingers. “Don’t worry folks, he’s sober. He’s been sober for 30 years.” "I just really wanted to play “Sting Me”" said a red-faced Rich as his guitar tech brought him his third guitar in less than about 30 seconds of total playing. It was fodder for consideration of how far the brothers’ love has come from a few decades ago when they were constantly battling emotionally, verbally and occasionally physical and such a moment could have been a rock that started an avalanche for the whole night.
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| Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes @ the Venue (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Instead, they launched into “No Speak No Slave” off 1992’s Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. As they transitioned to the second song, Chris lightly mocked his brother again “OK, Rich. Now, you get your wish” as they tore into a nicely charged version of “Sting Me.” This was followed by “Twice as Hard” which brought the rest of the crowd to their feet and saw Chris demonstrate the moves that have put him forward as one of rock’s best pure front men since the band exploded on the music universe in 1990.
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| The Black Crowes @ the Venue (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The Crowes went deep into the catalog on this night and didn’t just stay with the surface hits. “Thick ‘n’ Thin” was followed by a swinging version of “Gone” off 1994’s Amorica – an album that was controversial at its time. As Chris introduced “High Head Blues” he remarked on the cultural change of the times. “When we wrote this song, if you smoked weed you were an outlaw. And now we’re all just patients.”
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| Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes @ the Venue (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“Soul Singing” followed with Chris demonstrating that he still has all of the range to go deeply into the blues and soul vocals that made The Black Crowes stand far out from a crowded rock field of the early 90’s, while Rich had the room taking flight with a quick, beautifully intricate solo. On “Sister Luck”, Rich laid heavily into the intro and Chris added deep layers to the song with his vocals going in and out of a Southern quiver while he moved with the microphone stand like a matador with a cape.
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| Erik Deutsch of the Black Crowes @ the Venue (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“Wiser Time” was a slow build song that started with the crowd heading to the bar lines on the side of The Venue but built to everyone on their feet and a rousing ovation. A great keyboard solo by Erik Deutsch (who provided the band’s signature southern keys and organ moments) and nice guitar work by Nico Berciartua providing more of the rock sound to Rich Robinson’s swampier bits. With the crowd already brought to their feet, Chris introduced “Hard to Handle”: “We’re from Atlanta, Georgia and there’s a city about an hour south called Macon. Otis Redding is from there and he wrote this next one. And we’ve been riding this mo$#erfu%$er a long time.” The band delivered a clean and energetic version of version of perhaps their greatest hit, as spotlights roamed throughout the crowd at The Venue.
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| Nico Berciartua of the Black Crowes @ the Venue (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The hit was followed by a beautiful and soulful 15-minute rendition of “Thorn in My Pride” with Rich doing a 70’s style soul muted solo on his Fender telecaster, while Chris scatted along before doing a harmonica solo. Background singers Lesley Grant and Mackenzie Adams gave the version a strong Southern exclamation point.
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| Lesley Grant & Mackenzie Adams of the Black Crowes @ the Venue (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
From there, it was three mega-hits to close out the set. Rich donned his acoustic for “She Talks to Angels” while Berciartua delivered sweet slide in a very swampy version of the rueful songs that begins with the classic line: “She never mentions the word addiction.” Next up was the huge “Jealous Again” that got the biggest ovation of the night and the crowd once again on their feet. It was great to see the brothers sharing a microphone on the chorus – clear-eyed and full of positive vibes. They concluded the set with a huge “Remedy” that was delivered with the band’s locomotive-like energy fully released and the audience reacting in kind. From the power of Brian Griffin’s drums and original bassist Sven Pipien’s driving bass line.
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| Sven Pipien & Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes @ the Venue (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
A quick encore cover of Eddie Cochran’s “20 Flight Rock” brought the show to a close with a quick upbeat jam that allowed each of the instrumentalists an opportunity to stretch out. As the crowd exited out of The Venue and headed out through the slot machine symphony of the casino, there were frequent outburst of cheers from an audience still in the moment.
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| Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes @ the Venue (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The Venue is very impressive. Reminiscent of The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas – it holds 4,500 with comfortable seating and wide aisles. It has a huge stage (both wide and deep) that seems ready to handle any event. Indeed, even with eight musicians up on stage and performing in front of a huge backdrop of a Gone with The Wind era mansion adorned with their logo, the band’s presence felt a bit sparse. A phenomenal modern sound system and two giant screens that flank each side of the stage give everyone a fantastic view.
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