The Black Crowes live!

The Black Crowes
Grant Park, Chicago
Friday, July 6, 2007

The “greening” of Chicago took on a different meaning when noted marijuana advocates The Black Crowes accepted their invitation to this summer’s Taste.

Grant Park to the northeast of the Petrillo Music Shell didn’t devolve into a smoke off, though it was a much more peaceful environment than the bustle of the Taste’s ever-suffocating thoroghfares, and the reunited Crowes had a great deal to do with that. Far from the scrappy, Stonesy antidote to hair metal from their debut album, they revived their jam tendencies with taste and ease.

Frontman Chris Robinson, hirsute as ever and decked out in a flowing red tunic, pounded the P.A. with his Joplin-esque howl and was frequently made to sound more churchy by some gospel-bred backup vocalists. Introducing “Sting Me” as “hard, cosmic boogie,” it was almost as if he was singing intensely enough to sting the real Sting some five miles away.

Extended versions of “Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye,” “Soul Singing,” and “Seeing Things” allowed him to rest some, especially when the band took five-minute daytrips full of noodling through bluesy psychedelics. Rich Robinson, a conservatively dressed foil to his brother’s flamboyance, held the rhythmic fort while guitarist Paul Stacey and pianist/keyboardist Rob Clores operated, generally with their heads down.

The band focused heavily on the hits instead of the new music they’re allegedly working on, but of course no one was there for new thrills. Side-by-side, concise nuggets like “Jealous Again” and “Gone” were intrinsically stronger than the jams, though the relaxed ballads like “Thorn In My Pride” and “Wiser Time” played to everyone’s strengths.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly