Black Crowes in NYC

[sonickteam]

Ok, heres my little review of the Black Crowes / TSOOL show in NYC's Hammerstein Ballroom.
 
   First of all, i would like to say that the staff of the HB is one of the nicest crews ever. I had sprained my foot last week and had floor tickets, not cool, but they let me and my 2 friends up to the balcony to sit there which worked out perfectly cause we could all see and they JAMMED people onto that floor.  
 
   We got there just before TSOOL came on, and the crowd was a lot of people from outside of NYC who were already very drunk and rowdy.  the people in front of us were moving chairs around, spilling drinks, and eventually got into a big fight with each other and left before the Crowes ever even came on!!!!!
 
   anyway, TSOOL was great, a lot of energy, no one knew who they were, but they played all the songs i love by them and despite being pushed onto a stage that was about 5 feet from the drumkit to the front of the staged, they ran around like crazy. Those swedish guys sure are funny!  they played for about 50 minutes.
 
    around 9:15, the Crowes went on.  they had like 600 little (fake) candles all over the stage and overall had a really cool stage set-up and light show (they were there 7 nights so i guess they figured they'd go all out with the setup) The Crowes started off with a bang, playing a couple hard rocking songs and one of my favourite from Shake Your Money Maker, "Thick N Thin". The whole crowd was just going crazy (and smoking TONS of weed) everyone was standing up dancing around (spilling thier beers!) and just having a ball.  The crowes arent the best musicians and thier little "jam sessions" were starting to sound the same. But this didnt matter really, the Hammerstein Ballroom is just an awesome place to see a show, and even though i didnt know most of what the hell they were playing, i was waiting patiently for the songs i came there to hear.
 
    after about 15 songs they went off the stage, as i went to the bathroom, the usher said "they usually play a few encore songs"  haha, thanks, i know, but that was still nice of her.  
 
   well, thier encore songs sucked, nothing i knew and apparently nothing the WHOLE CROWD even knew. the last song they played was some rare B-side that ended all slow, and then they left.....
   
   no jealous again, she talks to angels, hard to handle, remedy......whatever.....nothing.  I dont know who exactly they were trying to impress with thier "we wont play a single one of our hits" attitude, but it wasnt me.  the Black Crowes are not some amazingly talented band with some huge cult following that happened to have a few singles that drew the masses to them.  they are a commercial blues/rock/americana band that got popular by ripping off CCR and Led Zeppelin. so why not play ANY of the songs that got you where you are today???  
 
    i left feeling a little ripped off and i doubt i was the only one.  I waited a long time to see the Crowes and now that i have, i plan on NOT going to see them again.  
 
   oh, and if you ever go to Hammerstein, bring cash cause its $8 a beer and they dont take credit cards..........
 
   and afterwards, we tried to go to the Kaiser Chiefs show at Mercury Lounge and the door guy told us he'd let us in for $200 (there were 3 of us)  whatever pal.....

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by sonickteam:
   and afterwards, we tried to go to the Kaiser Chiefs show at Mercury Lounge and the door guy told us he'd let us in for $200 (there were 3 of us)  whatever pal.....

what a douche!
 
 i love that place though, probably my favorite venue in NYC ... last time i was there we just walked up to the runner and the thermodynamics drummer as he was walking off stage (into the crowd) and offered him a blunt, so we went downstairs / backstage and got lit up ... good times ...

[tooms]

i think review is right on, until the complaints about the lack of "hits" and focus on the encore.  the crowd was great, singing every word, dancing, etc.  the band played really well and i didn't know a lot of the songs either.  i think the BCs are ok, but i only have one album of theirs.  it didn't really matter, it was fun, much better than i expected.  i saw them once before and this show blew it away. they played for 1 hr 45 mins and it whizzed by.
 
 what the review is missing is that the BCs are playing for a week at hammerstein to mostly hardcore fans--these are the reunion shows after not playing for four years.  and a bunch of the fans are probably going multiple nights.  i don't think the hits are what's drawn in a lot of the fans that were going to these shows.  plus, most fans knew most of the songs they were playing.  i saw set lists from other nights and they did play some of those "hits" on those nights.  it's nice that a band mixes up their setlists and doesn't play the same songs every night.  that's how they get fans to come back repeatedly and it keeps a band fresh, esp. road warriors like the BCs who always toured a lot till their recent break.
 
 the encore was a bit of a letdown, although the first song was "Willin" by Little Feat, which is a great song.  but i think the reviewer is letting a so-so encore ruin the rest of it.
 
 And the crowd dug TSOOL and most of the BC fans didn't know who they were.  the crowd gave them a chance and won them over.  TSOOL played a really good, energetic set.
 
 BTW, it's true that the BCs have ripped off the Stones, the Faces and others.  But they've kind of made it their own thing.  TSOOL have ripped a lot of people off too (the Beatles, the Moody Blues, any number of 60s psychelic-ish bands).  i've heard every riff they do somewhere else, but they rock as well.

[vansmack]

Did they play Thorn in my Pride?  That's a great song.

[sonickteam]

Originally posted by vansmack:
  Did they play Thorn in my Pride?  That's a great song.

no
 
 nor did they play "A conspiracy" , "kickin my heart around" or "Sometimes salvation"
 
   it was really quite uncanny, almost like they played every song i didnt know on purpose....

[vansmack]

Originally posted by sonickteam:
 no

OK.  I agree with Sonick then, the show was a major disappointment.

[sonickteam]

and they played 2 shows before that and 2 after, and all the others were littered with "hits".
 
  just not mine.  no one told me it was b-side night at the ballroom!

[tooms]

funny, i saw another site that listed the setlists and most thought the friday night show was the best setlist of the run so far.  i wouldn't have minded seeing one or two songs more that i knew, but it really didn't matter.  most of what they played was great.

[Bags]

Originally posted by tooms:
  funny, i saw another site that listed the setlists and most thought the friday night show was the best setlist of the run so far.

And, to reinforce the point you made earlier, a fansite's members would be pretty hardcore fans who would love the less obvious setlist, as they've seen all the hits played (in fact, they probably saw them on the other nights of this particular set of shows).