The Black Crowes and Lenny Kravitz
Irvine Meadows Amphitheater
4.23.99
time: about 1 hour 20 minutes


Setlist:

Remedy
Go Faster
Sting Me
Kickin' My Heart Around
Thick N Thin
Horsehead
She Talks To Angels
My Morning Song
Thorn In My Pride
Heavy
Wiser Time
Jealous Again
No Speak No Slave



The Black Crowes came on and everyone was excited.. the stage was dark and they were playing
a classical piece, a battle song.  Everyone seemed to be in a good mood as they opened with
Remedy.  I think that they open with this one to get the crowd going, because a dead audience
doesn't make for a good show.  Chris had a black hat on with a feather and a black shirt with 
the word PIMP on it, made with glitter.  Rich had a dark shirt and brown pants, and Sven had a
nice purple shirt on.  I like Steve's suit complete with a light yellow tie and a black cowboy
hat, he is pretty classy.  Ed was on the side, but visible and very much part of the action.  The backup singers
were in the back, which was good so they didnt get in the way of Ed like in the last show I went 
to.

The sound system here was much better than last time!  It was much louder and they had the upper
level speakers on too, that was amazing!  Audley and Rich's solos weren't muddy, and you could 
hear them pretty well when they both went up for solos.  Opening in Remedy, you could hear the 
keyboards very well, I was impressed.  They all had a lot of energy, and seemed like they were
having fun.  Drums and bass were loud and clear, and the background vocals were good too, they didn't
overshadow Chris.  I thought that sometimes the vocals were a bit muffled, I couldn't hear some
of what Chris was saying when he changed some lyrics around.  Rich did some good vocals on Wiser
Time and the a couple of others.

The lighting was pretty good too, it didn't interfere with the show or blind us like Lenny's did.
They also did a good job of spotlighting the guitarists when they were soloing, and Chris when
he played the harmonica, and Ed's solos on the keys.

The audience loved Remedy, and Jealous Again and She Talks to Angels.  My favorites were My Morning
Song, Thorn in my Pride, Sting Me, Horsehead and Thick N' Thin.  When they played Thick n' Thin
the audience really started grooving, and I was surprised, because they haven't played this song
when I have seen them.  I think they could have done a better job on Heavy and Kickin' but it was
good, just not their best effort.  The solos on Morning Song were really great, Audley has been
improving a lot since last year.  The Led Zeppelin teaser from Whole Lotta Love was really great
and right on!  They even did all the wierd effects and noises in the interlude.  The segway into
Thorn was very cool, also a surprise for me.  It started raining during that song and it just 
made it that much cooler!  After a couple songs Chris said "You guys better light your joints
quick before it starts raining again, because it will be too hard!"   Wiser Time had the best
guitar solo probably, since both Rich and Audley were up in the front playing it.

I talked to some other people around me and they were pretty impressed with the show, even the
ones who came to see Lenny Kravitz.  It would be a tough act to follow for him, but he put on 
a good show himself.  He has a great guitarist, Craig Ross, and they all had a lot of energy.
This was a really great lineup, but I wish that they got to play longer, for maybe 2 hours, and 
that they would change up the songs more and add more unreleased stuff.  I think it would have
been cool if Lenny played with the Crowes too.  I had a really fun time, and I would go again
if I had a chance!  As my friend Jason said:  "I came to see rock n' roll, and I got fuckin' 
rock n' roll!!"  


Ravi

http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi/crowesnest.html