NEWS FLASH: THE BLACK CROWES SAY "SHO' NUFF" BIG TIME The Black Crowes are back, and according to the Boston Globe, "The restructured Black Crowes couldn't have picked a much better crowd to witness their retrenchment to R&B/rock roots than the audience at Sunday's Big Field Day in Lowell Heritage Park." This headlining show marked the third gig on The Black Crowes "Sho' Nuff" warm-up trek (it launched June 19th), and drew an estimated 20,000 fans to the free concert, sponsored by WAAF-FM, marking the radio station's biggest-ever outdoor event. This gig is one of the few radio shows the band are performing on the six-week tour, which is focusing on very intimate club dates. They're mixing classic Black Crowes songs with the new ones--including "By Your Side," "Horse Head," and "Kicking My Heart Around"--from their Columbia Records debut album By Your Side, due out in September. Of the show, the Globe raved: "The headlining Crowes' also flashed old-school showmanship, distancing the Atlanta band from the hippie image it built with last year's Furthur Festival. Front-man Chris Robinson…in tall white hat and outfit with yellow scarf…arrived with two female backup singers on his arms, then kicked into a robust 'Remedy' with a feather-adorned mike stand. The singers put soulful sass into 'Sting Me', as the Crowes' focused on crowd-pleasers from their first two albums. The group is touring small venues (the sold out Cape Cod Melody Tent Thursday), while breaking in new bassist Sven Pipien and tour guitarist Audley Freed, and they fit in well Sunday." The accolades don't stop there. The Lowell Sun, writing about the same gig, said the concert "showed a band that's been virtually reborn." Meanwhile, of the tour launch at Toad's Place in New Haven, CT., the Hartford Advocate wrote: "Chris Robinson is a god. Or at least the singer was one last Friday night when The Black Crowes laid their claim on Toad's Place in an inaugural date on their nationwide "Sho' Nuff" club tour. Nothing less than pure excellence was expected, and the Crowes' delivered by bringing down the house. Rich Robinson's sound was thick and warm, and his playing crisp. The Crowes' willingness to rock out was a bold statement from a classic modern band that has proven it's longevity like few other acts. The group's hard-edged guitars, hedonism and bittersweet, sexed-up vocals make for an unparalleled sound in today's world of rock & roll. Very simply, The Black Crowes rule." Finally, the Portland Press Harold called the Portland, Me show "a raucous 85-minute set" and further noted: "Robinson was the quintessential front-man Saturday--exuberant, talkative between songs, and possessing a powerful voice that you'd never imagine could come from a guy that small. Beside him was his brother Rich Robinson on guitar, playing most of the leads and serving as a leader while Chris gyrated and danced with his two back-up singers." Crowes review 7/11/98 Austin, TX The Crowes played to a sold-out crowd in Austin Sat. night at La Zona Rosa. The crowd was very enthusiastic and well-behaved. The fan descriptions from previous Sho' Nuff appearances around the country pretty much matched up with what I expected to see. First the setlist: Remedy Sting Me Gone Hotel Illness By Your Side Sister Luck High Head Blues My Morning Song Wiser Time Jealous Again No Speak No Slave ENCORE She Talks To Angels Hard To Handle Twice As Hard The pre-show festivities included a fire truck and paramedics to take some drunk girl out of the club who passed out on the floor. Won't she be embarrassed when her friends ask her how the show was the next day :-) For those of you who haven't seen the boys since the last tour- and that is most of us - things look a little different as you might have expected. Chris and Rich sport shorter hair now, and the beard is gone from Chris. He has reverted to his SYMM-days appearance including glitter eye-liner and all (ugh). The voice is still trademark Chris, and he was belting out the tunes only like a hungry single lead singer of a Rock and Roll band can. I didn't have a great view of the stage, but the stage line-up left to right is Audley, then Sven, Chris, Rich, then Ed on the far right as usual with the two bakup gals on the right and Steve behind on the drums. Audley had this purple velvet long-sleeved shirt on with butterfly collars- I kid you not! For Texas in July, I would have recommended to him something else to wear :-) Someone earlier compared him to Keith Richards in appearance and it was pretty much dead-on. In fact Audley's afro rivaled that of one of the sister backup singers! Chris was escorted on-stage with a black top-hat with a lone feather that he soon discarded when the heat picked up. Sven looks like this happy-go-lucky guy with a big smile on his face and head-rocking motion a-la Beatles mode. Rich is pretty much Rich, and Ed was golden as always. Didn't get a chance to see Steve too well, although Chris did joke with the audience that Steve was "sweating to the oldies" :-) I was looking for any sign of a taper anywhere- none to be found. I don't think there will be any bootlegs of this show, which is too bad. Unless they are from the soundboard, the quality will proably not be that good if someone snuck a small recording device in. I guess there is a no-taping policy at the club. I hope this gets worked out before the real tour! From the setlist, you can see they pretty much favored the earlier albums and not too much experimental stuff going on. There was a baby-jam during My Morning Song and they even teased the audience with a Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love" riff that quickly evaporated. I thought it was actually a cool touch. But it was nothing like the HORDE jams they used to do. The only new song we got to hear was "By Your Side" which someone said has some riffs that sound very much like "Tumbling Dice" by the Stones. It was a great turnout and the crowd was singing along to a lot of the songs. No incidents in the crowd to speak of. Austin in general is a great place to see just about any live band, and I'm sure it is just as great of a place for a band to play as well. Chris did say that they just finished recording a new album, and that it would be available 'soon', so I don't know if there is any truth to the rumors that the new album might be delayed until the end of the year. It's going to take a while to get the new members up to speed on all the songs in the Crowes warchest, and you can definitely hear the difference with Marc Ford not there, but the majority of the audience won't even catch that. They are building a base that I'm sure will include more varied setlists like they used to do once the members get into their new groove. Having touring backup singers is a great addition that is long overdue IMHO. It was great to see the boys live again, and for all the turmoil and changes that have happened to the band in the last year or so, it didn't affect their performance or impact during showtime. The Crowes are back! Doug Well, I just rolled into Austin. Dallas was incredible last night. After an almost 2 year wait and an hour an a half of standin' around before the show (like a fuckin' sardine) the boys came out and made it all worth it for me. It was definitely the most "Rock n Roll" Rock n Roll show that I have ever seen. Goin' to a Sho'Enough show is bout the closest thing to jumpin' into a time machine as you can get. Sex, Drugs, and Rock n Roll baby. You can't beat it. Except for Audley's guitar cuttin' out a couple of times the show went perfectly for me. Even though I knew what was commin' right before they ripped into Remedy, I still wasn't prepared. And I won't be tonight either. The energy once they start playin' is simply incredible. It didn't matter what the setlist was, and it wont' matter tonight either. Sure, I'm goin' to hear some of the same stuff tonight that I heard lastnight, but I bet they will still knock me on my ass. The crowd was packed like sardines, and very hungry for the show to start after about a two and a half hour wait, for some people. But once the music started, none of that mattered. Everyone (around me at least) was real cool. Very generous. The highlights for me were, Blackberry, Thorn (with the great jam in the middle - harmonica and all), Wiser Time - very jammy. The jams are definitely not entirely gone. I found some lastnight. I could go on and on, but I have to start preparing for Austin tonight. Go to Trudy's before the show tonight and I'll see ya there. I'm about 6' 2", brown hair, and I'll be in a light blue "Little Sister" t-shirt. Ed, bring Ingrid. Here we go again. By the way here's the set. I think this was all the songs (I may have left some out), but the order is way fucked up - just like me, so I apologize in advance. Remedy Sting Me Black Moon Thin n Thin Go Faster (I think this was a first timer) Bad Luck, Blue... Thorn Blackberry No Speak No Slave Jealous Again WiserTime Encore Angels Hard to Handle Twice as Hard