Black Crowes Ottawa!

[Davey Boy 2.0]

I just took something from your desk and rubbed it all around the urinal in the mens room.

was it a bone?

[gentlemonkey]

Fun show! Wicked to see the skank representation! I had a great time rocking out and getting waaay too drunk for a Monday...

The Congress Centre doesnt make for a great sounding venue- but it sure is a fun place to see a show.. and holy lord it was loud.

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I don't recall Kate Hudson ever winning an Oscar either (she was nominated).

She did, however, win a Golden Globe.

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Ottawa Citizen review. Seems like Chris and Eddie are now brothers, although Eddie is now named Rich. Who the hell was onstage? I thought it was the Black Crowes. I like this review more the the Sun's.

Black Crowes transcend negative karma

Lynn Saxberg, Ottawa Citizen

Published: Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The Black Crowes somehow managed to transcend the negative karma of the Congress Centre on Monday and perform a remarkable feat. In front of a audience of about 2,200 people, they turned a bummer of a night into a free-wheeling celebration of the gathering power of music.

“Welcome to the Monday night, try-to-turn-the-bunker-into-a-garden,†singer Chris Robinson said to the audience, commenting on the Congress Centre’s complete lack of ambience.

Not that it mattered in the end. Over two hours, we watched the music grow and blossom, from Virtue and Vice through to the surprise encore of She Talks To Angel. As the band jammed like the old days, they sure sounded like they were getting off on being back together on stage.

Without a new album to promote, the Southern band played songs they enjoyed playing, which that night included elegantly extended versions of Dylan’s Girl From the North Country and the Beatles’ Hide Your Love Away, as well as vintage Crowes numbers like Wiser Time, and the Soul Singing and Remedy.

Incense burned during Greasy Grass River and Girl From a Pawnshop, while psychedelic guitars wailed, keyboards swirled and Chris Robinson sang like a slightly stoned angel.

For someone who smokes as much weed as he has been known to, Robinson’s high, elastic voice sounded fantastic and he had an impressive amount of lung power to direct at a harp.

He’s the longhaired, bearded one who’s married to Hollywood actor Kate Hudson. His longhaired brother, Rich, with whom he has reunited for this tour, manned the keyboards.

Musically, one of the band’s peak moments came during My Morning Song, which crossed into a freakout zone of Latin percussion and spacey guitar.

If music got to free your mind/just let it go cause you never know,†sang Robinson, and you could feel the love in the air.

But it was a challenge to get to that point. For fans, the bad vibes started on the way into the building’s underground parking, where the centre’s striking workers delayed each vehicle for up to 15 minutes.

Inside the building, a lineup of several hundred people, maybe even 1,000, moved slowly toward the second-floor conference hall as security patted them down, checked their bags and made sure they were old enough to consume alcohol.

In the lobby, replacement workers migrated from other departments in the building to serve drinks and food, while serious-looking security personnel roamed in pairs, ready to pounce on illicit activities. At least one fan I saw was ejected for smoking pot.

The Congress Centre is known to be the least cool place in town to see a rock concert. With its sound-sucking plush carpeting, it was designed for meetings and banquets, not rock concerts. For the young hippies and aging jamheads who follow the Crowes, it was probably the least kind place in town for the band to play.

The only other time, by the way, that the Crowes played in this area was a wild 1993 spin through the Robert Guertin Arena in Hull, when they were touring behind their second disc, Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.

Another band that thrives on playing live is Canada’s Matt Mays and El Torpedo, who have been touring across Canada with the Crowes.

“We only have a few more shows with the Black Crowes,†Mays told the crowd. “So we’re getting a little bummed out.â€

Also too bad was the fact that there were more people in line than in front of the stage when Mays chose a new song, Building a Boat, to begin a too-short 30-minute set that never really seemed to get off the ground.

[bradm]

So in the set list, the following are the cover tunes:

• Girl From The North Country (Bob Dylan)
  
• You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (The Beatles)
  
• L.A. (Neil Young)
  
• Mellow Down Easy (Little Walter)
  

Were there any others?

Aloha,

Brad

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Were there any others?

You missed Freebird??? Where did you go?

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(you got 'em all)

[ollie]

I don't recall Kate Hudson ever winning an Oscar either (she was nominated).

She did' date=' however, win a Golden Globe.

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[/quote']

Oh yeah, I just brought that up in the context of the review, which said she won an Oscar.

I don't think the Congress Centre is as drab an environment as boths reviews suggest. It's a cool venue by me.

[bouche]

I don't think the Congress Centre is as drab an environment as boths reviews suggest. It's a cool venue by me.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Just becaus Chris called it a bunker...they're running with it. I love that venue.

[bradm]

One final bit of hilarity/horror from last night: At one point, I was walking around the fenced-off sound booth (to see how the sound was in various places), and overheard some people commenting on how much space there was...and how they could bring in...yup...camp chairs...At best, it was said half- or third-jokingly. I resisted the urge to take my mic stand and go Jackie Chan on them...but only because it was already set up...

Aloha,

Brad

[rubberdinghy]

At best, it was said half- or third-jokingly. I resisted the urge to take my mic stand and go Jackie Chan on them..

Aloha,

Brad

OMG!

Edited May 16, 2006 by Guest

[Booche]

By the way. Got home to a message on my machine before the show, called the lad back and it was TimmyB. He decided after the London show he had to make the trip here, in case they played LA. He said he wouldnt have been able to forgive himself if they had.

Well done Timmy. Well done.

Wish I could have seen you but that dvd I made you ended up in good hands.

[Booche]

Hey, wait a second.

How come I am not re-listening to this show yet Brad, ya lazy bastard........

[bradm]

There's a certain bit of the call for encore that I'm trying to get just right, so that everybody can hear things clearly.

Aloha,

Brad

[Booche]

Hahahahahhaha, awesome.

Great response.

[Booche]

I don't think the Congress Centre is as drab an environment as boths reviews suggest. It's a cool venue by me.

So, what did you and Bouche like so much?

The muddy sound?

The lack of pissers?

The stage that is too low?

The 7 dollar Stella's?

All I can think is that you must have liked the carpet an awful lot.

[ollie]

The muddy sound?

You were standing in the wrong spot.

The lack of pissers?

No line-up for me.

The stage that is too low?

No it isn't.

The 7 dollar Stella's?

I drank domestic.

Hey TimmyB, do you have long black hair and a beard and were talking to Bouche and Ms. Hux on the way out? If so I regret not introducing myself!

[fluffhead77]

don't buy stella if you're going to bitch about pricey pints

[bradm]

Even domestic beer was $6/bottle, and it seemed to me that the guy pouring them didn't quite get all of the bottle's contents into the glass.

Aloha,

Brad

[Booche]

6$ for a 'domestic' piece of Canadian, Coors or Blue. Piss beer.

I roamed like a somnabitch, so I was hardly in the wrong spot. From the front row to the back. I think I would have a better representation of the over-all sound than you, same with the vantage point. That venue isnt so great.

[fluffhead77]

6$ for a 'domestic' piece of Canadian, Coors or Blue. Piss beer.

I

fair enough

[ollie]

6$ for a 'domestic' piece of Canadian, Coors or Blue. Piss beer.

I was really only interested in 5% of the contents.

I guess I'm not so picky with sound. You're probably right but it didn't ruin my enjoyment.

[Booche]

Same here, I loved my time in there last night but I disagree with the comments about the venue you guys put forth.

[Freak By Night]

I scored a complimentary beer last night... the lady forgot to take my ticket. So I got 6 for the price of 5.

Just another example of "sticking it to the man".

No complaints from me about the Congress Centre.

[AdamH]

Although I wasn't at this show, I'll be the first to tell you that Ann Marie is one of the worst entertainment writers I've ever read or spoken to. It so happens that she did a piece on my gf and I during the Make Poverty History campaign last July, in which she very liberally took our words out of context and painted a picture so very far from the blurbs we gave her.

In journalistic terms she is the opposite of King Midas.

[AdamH]

examples in that article that make me cringe, and want to notify the grammar slammer:

"Congress Centre among 2,200 of their tunes-appreciating fans"

"Robinson, with his trippy dance moves and love for the mic stand, looks like every clinging-to-his-youth hippy cliche there is."

In the end the Black Crowes were utterly tight

Honestly even Shainhouse could write something better.