Black Moon Jam >>> Black Moon Creeping No Speak No Slave Go Faster Hotel Illness Sting Me Kickin' My Heart Around Oh Well My Morning Song Horsehead Sometimes Salvation Bled To Death Wiser Time Cursed Diamond Gone Thorn's Progress >>> Jam >>> Thorn In My Pride By Your Side Jealous Again Virtue & Vice - encore - Sick Again Nobody's Fault But Mine Remedy I am reviewing this show for specifically one reason. To spread the word to all of the fans who were like me, persuaded by endless bashing on the post 1997 live Black Crowes performances not to bother trading for any 1998 and 1999 shows. I have seen the light and the error of my ways! A few weeks back I decided I needed to update my Crowes collection to include some 1998 Club Tour shows and some 1999 shows. I started by making a trade with Rev. Blake, one of the regulars in the Crowes messageboard and trader community. I selected two club tour shows, The By Your Side Premier Boradcast, 4/4/99 and 10/23/99. I knew that the club shows might not be very interesting or necessarily perfect sound quality, but I was very suprised to find out that they were both excellent shows. In particular, the Thorn In My Pride from the 7/25/98 show is amazing. It features a harmonica jam for about five minutes, at the end of the song. That is something I have never heard the Crowes do, and I was blown away. I also expected the BYS Premier to be pretty much a shelf mainstay, that wouldn't get much spinning time on my CD player, interviews are nice once, and I was right. The 4/4.99 show is fantastic, but the gem is the 10/23/99 show, and as such, I would like to take a moment of your time to tell you about it. On October 23, 1999 The Black Crowes played their last show of the year at Maritime Hall in San Francisco. I wasn't at the show, so I will spare you sound reviews and crowd feelings, because I am going to treat this as a review of a live release. This sucker is good! The sound on the show is even and recorded through a digital audio source. Its sounds alot like many of the Amorica and Three Snakes era digital Audio shows sound - great! The crowd is very audible but never gets in the way of the music and the instruments are all clear as a bell with very little muddiness. It is not a SB, so its not a perfect, but as a trader, this is the type of show you really dream about hearing in thsi quality. The first major note of the show is the setlist. The band had played a few shows with Jimmy Page just before this last show of the year, and prior to that, shows had been plagued with very static setlists. This one was a curveball. They opened with Black Moon Jam, a version that was much closer to what was played in 1995 than 1996 or 1997. Slow and funky intro blooming into a full blown musical experience. After that followed Black Moon Creeping, which to this day is one of my favorite Crowes songs. Next No Speak No Slave, which is my favorite Crowes song. These two songs were done to perfection. None of the complaints that I have heard about the band rushing through songs were valid so far. The band was jamming like the Stones (MSR) of the early 1970s, tight and in the song without straying for too long out side of the normal song. Simply put, I was very impressed with the opening jam and songs. Next Up, GO Faster through Kicking My Heart Around. I liked this run alot, its a rock run and not something that I normally would sit back and listen to on a new disc. I tend to skip right into My Morning Song or Ballad In Urgency and eventually find my way back to the rest of the songs, but the intro songs had been so good, I felt obliged to listen to the show straight through. I can honestly say I was not let down for one moment. I like many of the songs on By Your Side, and I dislike many of them. Go Faster and Kicking My Heart Around are two of my favorites, they play nicely into the old Southern Harmony, Shake Your Money Maker era when the Crowes rocked out. Because of this, they fit nicely into this run. The other two songs, Hotle Illness and Sting me are rock songs and after the first 6 songs I was extremely impressed with the 1999 sound and I was dying to continue listening to the show, but also dying to break open all of the other new shows I had sitting on the floor. But I held back. The Crowes took it up a notch for the next few songs. I have always liked Oh Well, its a cool song and the Crowes do a killer version of it. They showed that with or without Page, they own this song, and they followed it up with their classic live masterpiece, My Morning Song. I was expecting the Whole Lotta Love Jam in the middle of the song, which I like alot, but which can get tired after a while. I remember reading a few days ago that the perfect encore was all covers, like the 12/15/96 show. My reaction to that was that if every show were like that show, I don't think I would like the Crowes nearly as much as I do. I like scattered covers and the same goes with this jam, its a cover, just in jam form. So, when they broke into their own Morning Song Jam, I was suprised, and very satisfied. This is why I love this song, the interplay between Marc and Rich was fantastic in previous years, but I had yet to hear what Audley and Rich would do, because they had only done the other mostly cover version of the jam. I cannot stress how much I feel that Audley has adeptly filled the void left by Marc. Rich and Audley have a very sinilar chemistry on stage, but with a much harder rock edge. They played the jam perfectly. After that, Horsehead, another gem from By Your Side, Sometimes Salvation, and the new song, Bled To Death. This was a very dark Southern Harmony feeling run and it was great and as soon as it ended, they had broken into Amorica territory with Wiser Time, Cursed Diamond and Gone. Bled To Death is good, I will spare any reviews of the actual song because I don't beleive that someone telling anyone else a song is good has much effect, you need to hear it and make your own decsion. All six of these songs were played perfectly, the tempo was slightly upspeed from My Morning Song onward, but I got used to it very quickly. The band is playing around with the songs more than they used to, instead of just rotating in and out the same old jams, they are varying the actual songs. Of the shows that I got, all of the versions of Thorn In My Pride were very different. One was played straight up with a jam in the middle, another was played quickly and straight up, and this was played with an intro jam that began with Thorn's Progress and quickly moved into something new. The transition into Thorn In My Pride from the jam was flawless and I can confidently say that right now, this is my favorite version of the song. Its up tempo but not fast, and it lack the boring and drawn out nature than many of the live performances of this song in the past have had (you know, those 20 minute versions you used to love until you discovered My Morning Song). The set ended with a great rock run of By Your Side, Jealous Again and Virtue and Vice. They have always played these three songs well and this was no exception. By Your Side and Virute and Vice are two more of my favorites from By Your Side, so hearing them as part of this excellent show was a pleasure. The encore was wild! Two Zeppelin numbers and Remedy. I couldn't have picked anything better. The Crowes acknowledged their recent (and future) work with Page and gave a treat to all the fans who might not have seen one of those shows (at that time). I can't stress how much I enjoyed this show and how much more I am looking forward to the Crowes going back out on tour. Nothing is certain if you only think about setlists rotating and the clothes the band might wear, but the bottom line is they haven't lost anything at all if you take a look at one individual show. I personally hope the vary the setlists up a bit to keep each show different from the last, but that won't break me. The 1998 and 1999 shows I have heard tell me one thing, even without varying the setlists, the band is able to vary the songs. If you haven't picked up any of the 1998 or 1999 shows because you think you might be dissappointed, think again, I wasn't. |