Saw The Chris Robinson Brotherhood Friday Night (Spoilers)

[SteveSly]

When it comes to jam bands, I am fairly particular in my tastes. I love the ones that dabble in prog such as Umphrey’s McGee and Tauk. I also enjoy more blues based jam bands like Gov’t Mule and The Allman Brothers. Traditional jam bands like The Grateful Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic and others have never done much for me. The Chris Robinson Brotherhood lies somewhere in between the above mentioned styles for me. Robinson, of course, is the former lead vocalist for The Black Crowes, a band that I always liked and enjoyed live. The CRB is definitely more jam oriented than the Crowes were. I have 3 of their albums and like them to varying degrees. The band put on a 3 hour concert (with intermission), with no opening act at Bell’s Brewery Beer Garden Friday night. The show was sold out and there were more people than I had ever seen at the venue for a show in the past. The show was good, but to be honest I got a bit board with it after a while. Some of the bands songs are really strong (“Tulsa Yesterday” is a good example), and like most jam bands, they do some covers in the set, but overall it just gets a bit “samey” to my ears. Robinson’s voice is still great, but unlike with the Black Crowes where he was a front man working the stage, in the CRB he played rhythm guitar all night, and only spoke to the audience very briefly. The rest of the band are all good musicians, although they could have used a riser for the keyboard player and drummer as it was difficult to see them all night. It was a gorgeous evening for an outdoor show, and of course having fresh Bell’s beer on tap is a bonus in itself. In the end, I enjoyed this show, but it did not blow me away. I probably would not go see them again, but most people in the crowd seemed to eat it up so what do I know. Here is the set list:

NEW CANNOBALL RAG
EAGLES ON THE HIGHWAY
BEGGAR’S MOON
TULSA YESTERDAY
THE MUSIC’S HOT (SLIM HARPO COVER)
ROAN COUNTRY BANJO
STAR OR STONE
HELLO L.A., BYE BYE BIRMINGHAM (DELANEY BRAMLETT COVER)

INTERMISSION

GOOD TO KNOW
NARCISSUS SOAKING WET
RARE BIRDS
HARE, THE HERALD HERMIT SPEAKS
IF YOU HAD A HEART TO BREAK
GIRL I LOVE YOU
SHORE POWER
GOT LOVE IF YOU WANT IT (SLIM HARPO COVER)

ENCORE

SWEET VIRGINIA (ROLLING STONES COVER)

[TheLoony]

I've never heard of Delaney Bramlett or Slim Harpo.

Shows how much I know.

[SteveSly]

I've never heard of Delaney Bramlett or Slim Harpo.

Shows how much I know.

Slim Harpo was a blues musician back in the late 50’s and 60’s. His best known song is probably “I’m A King Bee”. Bramlett was one half of the duo Delany and Bonnie back in the 60’s. Along with their / his solo stuff he played on tons of other people’s records in the 70’s and 80’s.