Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes 10.19.99 - Los Angeles, CA - The Greek Theater Celebration Day Custard Pie Sick Again No Speak No Slave What Is And What Should Never Be Hard To Handle Woke Up This Morning Ten Years Gone In My Time Of Dying Your Time Is Gonna Come Remedy The Lemon Song Sloppy Drunk Shapes Of Things Nobody's Fault But Mine Heartbreaker Encore: Hey, Hey, What Can I Do You Shook Me Out On The Tiles Whole Lotta Love 10.18.99 - Los Angeles, CA - The Greek Theater Celebration Day Custard Pie Sick Again No Speak No Slave What Is And What Should Never Be Wiser Time Mellow Down Easy Ten Years Gone In My Time Of Dying Your Time Is Gonna Come Remedy The Lemon Song Shake Your Money Maker Shapes Of Things Nobody's Fault But Mine Heartbreaker Encore: Hey, Hey, What Can I Do Oh Well Out On The Tiles -> Whole Lotta Love First of all, I'd have to say that this is probably one of the best and most fun shows I've ever been to! The crowd was really excited , and so was the band and you could tell by looking at their faces and the energy that they put out. I'm going to focus on the 19th show since it was the better of the two, but I will note the differences between the two. The shows were about 2 hours long and they started in good time. The Greek Theater has a capacity of about 5000 people, and there isn't a bad seat in the house really. I was in the very back for one show before and I still really enjoyed it. The stage setup was pretty simple, with fender amps on the right, marshalls on the left , on Audley's side and Steve's drum kit in the center of the stage. Eddie was on the right side on top of a raised tier, above the amps. He had some cool looking stickers on his setup, including an alien , I think and the crowes heads and little green friend. It was on the same level as the stage and it had the crowes' head / zoso logo on the bass drum head. The lighting was pretty good too. When Ed played the intro for Your Time is Gonna Come, it was dark, and purple, looking very gothic and it was a perfect way to set the atmosphere. The sound overall was quite good, and the venue is known for it. Chris's vocals disappeared for a bit in the beginning of the first and second nights, and also the bass was too loud during some songs on the first night. When the band came out, I didn't expect Jimmy Page to be out with them through the whole show, but he was there and got a lot of applause, screaming, and mayhem. We were pumped!!! The audience was really psyched to be there, and I couldn't believe it! I had waited over a year to see Jimmy Page since I missed the last tour, it was a great feeling! Page came out in all black, similar to what he had been wearing in recent shows. It seems to me that he wants the focus more to be on the music than what he looks like. On the 18th Chris came out in all black leather, pants, a black shirt and black jacket, which he removed shortly into the performance. He wore a cool necklace, which looked like a silver talon of a bird. For the encore on the 19th, he changed into a Zoso tanktop. The second night he had some cool looking gold pants on. Audley had grey pants, and a light colored shirt I believe. Rich had on brown pants and a nice white silk shirt with a subtle pattern on it. I couldn't see what Eddie or Steve were wearing since they were mostly behind their instruments. Sven was wearing black pants and a dark shirt I believe. Audley played his Gibsons mostly, and Rich went through the usual bunch of guitars, telecasters, gibsons, and his custom and rare guitars. Jimmy played with the gold top LP (same as netaid), yellow top, sunburst and the red top and also a telecaster (also used at netaid); they were very nice instruments. Unfortunately, he didn't bust out the double neck! Now onto the songs, they were all really really good. The Black Crowes are in top form and they did a great job with the zeppelin tunes, and the others were as good if not better than any time before. The adrenaline of the crowd seemed to spill onto the stage, and the band just went nuts. Celebration Day was the opener, but not everyone recognized it. Jimmy was in a great mood the second night, he was smiling, and had the classic expressions on his face from the old days. He jumped around a little and threw his guitar around all over the place. You could see his signature moves all over the place if you've seen and old live videos. He did a great little solo on this song, he was definitely in his groove that night! Then we heard the unmistakable riff of Custard Pie, this one really got the audience going. Sick Again was another rocker, well done.. Towards the beginning Chris asked us "How're you feelin'?" and after a rather weak response, he said, I don't want that BS LA welcome, How're you doing?" He had a smile on his face, which was there all night. No Speak No Slave got a great response, people knew the song and we had the first solo from Jimmy, which was pretty good, different, but it fit in.. Audley and Rich also soloed on this song. What is and What Should Never be was cool, and Hard to Handle was also good, you could see Jimmy getting into the song , playing a crunchy rhythm part. Chris introduced the next one as a BB King number, I only heard it a couple times before, and this version was sweet!! Jimmy played one of his best solos, and he sounded like BB King for a while, before returning to his signature sound. Audley and Rich had nice slide solos on there too. On the 18th, Mellow Down Easy was on the set, and it was really awesome, Chris had a nice long harp solo, and the drumming was excellent, and stood out on this song. Several times Steve lost grip of his sticks and they flew off the drum head and he didn't lose a beat, he just kept on going. He really was enjoying the show, as Page turned to look at him many times. Those songs were very true to the originals. Also on the set on the 18th was Wiser Time, on which Eddie shined, as usual and it had a cool part in the crescendo when Audley and Rich came together both soloing. Looking at Jimmy during the Crowes tunes, he seemed like he really was enjoying them.. Next were among the two best songs, Ten Years Gone and In My time of Dying. One showed his soft side, with great complimentary vocals from Chris and In My time Of Dying had some really solid slide guitar, backed by Rich and Audley along with a great bass line and awesome drumming. Ten Years Gone was a great example of how they used the 3 guitarists to preserve the original texture of the Zeppelin songs from the studio versions to the stage. A great surprise to me was Your Time is Gonna Come, Eddie had a really nice intro which reminded me of medieval times in a castle in Europe. The stage went dark for the song's intro and the ending, it was very nice! Remedy was very cool, it had people dancing in the isles, and it showed off the talents of Rich and Audley some more. But then was the Lemon Song, it had some really great parts including a slow and quiet sections, and some killer solos by Jimmy. He was playing almost like in the old days, it was awesome! And at the end Chris threw in some vocals ala Robert Plant which put a smile on Jimmy's face. It was an extended version, very cool. I was truly impressed at that point. Chris even changed the lyrics a bit and said "if you squeeze my lemon, you'll make eddie harsch fall right out of bed!" Then, Chris introduced Sloppy Drunk. I hadn't heard this one much before, it also had some great solos. On the 18th, Shake Your Moneymaker was incredible, its one of my favorite covers. Jimmy Page pulled off a really different and cool solo, not like the ones I've heard them play before. The surprises continue with Shapes of Things from the Yardbirds. It had a great solo which was very close to the album version. At first I didn't recognize it, but I like it when they put in new tunes in the set. Nobody's Fault But Mine had everyone singing along, it seemed like it was everyone in the audience's favorite song. Heartbreaker was amazing! Its really hard to describe.. I felt like I was seeing Led Zeppelin if I closed my eyes. His solo was so fast that I couldn't see where his fingers were going on the fretboard, it was incredible!!! Even after seeing the first show I was still amazed. After this, the band leaves the stage for a break before the traditional encore. People were screaming and yelling and holding up their lighters. Eventually the band got back up there for a great encore, with a sweet version of Hey Hey What Can I Do, with Rich on backup vocals. Chris did a great job on this song and next was a really really fabulous version of You Shook Me. The slide guitar was almost the same as the recorded version I thought it would never end. He played it so well that even Chris was surprised when he did some improvisation that he didn't even expect! So he came back with several verses of "you rocked me so hard..." all the while Chris was headbanging to the song and just sitting back in amazement as he watched Jimmy go off! On the 18th, he played Oh Well, which was really awesome, since he ripped it up during the solo.. its almost as if he was a different person from the beginning of the show. A rare song, Out on the Tiles was next, with a very solid drum part, but Chris was singing a little out of tune, probably because he strained his voice screaming during You Shook Me. Then Whole Lotta Love complete with the traditional strange , spacey sound effects and solo reminding you of times of old. The Black Crowes were the perfect match for Jimmy Page on this tour, and they all were phenomenal. They put on the best show I've ever seen! At the end Chris introduced the band and then lastly he said "of course, Mr. Jimmy Page." He responded by introducing Chris and told him to take a bow. At the end of the last show he told everyone how much fun he had and how great the band was, he was in very good spirits! I had a lot of fun and so did everyone else I talked to.. The setlist was amazing and they all did a great job. After it was over, they all stood in a line, with arms across each others shoulders and did a bow. That is classic.. I'd like to see someone top that! ~ Ravi [qfg@yahoo.com] Crowes' Nest: http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi/crowesnest.html