...reacquaint yourself with my style

Well, I obviously haven't kept up on my pledge to post every day. In fact, I haven't even come close. I even went so far as to pull a lazy blogger trick and posted lyrics. Lame lame lame. At least it was something, but that was a month ago, and even though not much has happened since then, I'm gonna try to get back into the swing of things and come up with something worth typing.

That "Good Friday" post was in reference to both the "holiday" (no shit?), but also to the fact that I was going to see The Black Crowes that following Wednesday at The Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. For those not in the know, the Crowes had gone on hiatus in 2002 and after years of tension within the band, I don't think anyone held out much hope of them reconvening for a tour. When the rumors started flying about the Robinson brothers getting together behind closed doors, I kept my ears (and eyes) open for an official announcement. It finally came earlier this year with a run of 5 nights in NYC. The band wasn't booking any more shows until they saw how those initial shows went. For some reason, I didn't get tickets right away and was sure I'd regret it until they added 2 more nights. I immediately ordered 2 tickets for the final night (March 30) without a worry that I'd get stuck with the 2nd one. I knew someone would go with me (Kary had already taken herself out of the running because she has a hard time standing for that long... she's not a big fan of general admission shows).

My friend Mike and I have always been big Crowes fans and talk about them often. We'd both been watching for the reunions shows, so I offered the 2nd ticket to him, despite the fact that he lives in Florida now. If he wanted to come and could make it happen, then the ticket was his. Well, he couldn't make it happen, and next on the list of potential attendees was my friend Mark (when I had told him I got tickets his eyes lit up, only to be extinguished when I told him that I'd offered the other one to Mike).

The Crowes were doing some warm-up shows around the greater NY area before the Hammerstein run (under the pseudonym Mr. Crowes Garden... not the best kept secret at the time), and I was checking set lists to see what they were playing. I didn't expect to be disappointed by anything they played, but I was curious because they'd released 2 albums after the departure of fan-favorite guitarist Marc Ford, and with him back in the fold, I wondered if they'd stick with songs that he originally played on or if they'd cover their whole recorded career. Well, it turned out they were playing something from every record, plus some obscure b-side and/or a different cover every night. Sweet.

Mark and I got to NYC in plenty of time, so we grabbed a bite and made our way to the right side of the stage (Rich's side). They opened with "Cursed Diamond", possibly my favorite Crowes tune, and I couldn't have imagined a better way to begin. Rich & Chris started it a little slow, and combined with the red wash over the stage, the tension was almost too much to bear. When the chorus finally kicked in, you could feel a release throughout the room. The set continued with "Gone" (from Amorica, like "Cursed Diamond") into the "Black Moon Creeping" jam (which, not surprisingly, segues into "BMC"). It was shaping up to be an absolutely amazing show until about 3 more songs in, when they started jamming in the middle of "Soul Singing" (the only song of the night that Marc didn't originally play on). The earlier jam was fine, because it was sorta structured, but this one was all over the place. I felt like I was watching them at their rehearsal space, coming up with new riffs. Poor Chris looked uncomfortable with nothing to do and quite frankly, I felt the same way. Like I said, I'd been checking the setlists, and they had plenty of songs rehearsed that they didn't have to rely on jamming as much as they did (there were no less than 3 more jams later in the set). The songs they did were great... in fact, "Girl From A Pawnshop", a song I was never particularly fond of, struck me in a way it hadn't before... but I couldn't help thinking that they could've played 3 or 4 more "real" songs if they'd just skipped the jams. Then, the final encore was "You Gotta Move", and old blues song that Aerosmith recently recorded, but was recorded by the Rolling Stones for the Sticky Fingers album (which is the version the Crowes did)... it seemed like an odd choice to end the show with, let alone a week's run. As I mentioned, standing there watching it left me a little disappointed, but I have since downloaded the show and can appreciate it better now (they've been streaming it on the official site for about a month now). I know Mark was very bummed... I'm gonna make him a copy of the show and hopefully he'll enjoy listening to it.

I think Kary and I are gonna go see them when they play at the Arts Center with Tom Petty. Chances are their set will be a little tighter, given their limited time and all. Plus I've never seen Tom Petty... I hope he's not promoting some lousy new album and sticks with the songs people actually wanna hear.

See ya tomorrow, blog (maybe).