THE BLACK CROWES BRING THEIR ‘HAPPINESS BASTARDS TOUR’ TO NEWCASTLE’S
O2 CITY HALL, MARKING THE BAND’S FIRST SHOW IN TOON SINCE 1992.

★★★★★ (5/5)

THE BLACK CROWES PERFORMING AT NEWCASTLE’S O2 CITY HALL
PHOTOCREDIT: CALUM BUCHAN

The Black Crowes are now a rock institution, let’s be honest, it’s not always been an easy journey for them and their audience but the Georgian band are now one of the great rock and roll bands on this planet. Their brand of Southern Influenced rock is a joy to behold live.

Due to travel issues I wasn’t able to see the support act, the Jim Jones Allstars, which I was quite disappointed about, I’d heard good things about them and talking to people when I got there it sounds like they put on a great show. I normally try to see the support so will hopefully catch them another time.

The Black Crowes were on a four date tour of the UK, personally I was desperate to see them as I had tickets to see them support Aerosmith at Madison Square Gardens in January this year which was postponed.

The venue is a great venue, intimate but with great acoustics. As Chris pointed out it was smaller than many of the venues they normally play but that was a good thing as he could see the audience, something they did a lot as the lights kept coming up to show the crowd who were clearly loved everything they were seeing!

The stage set up was great, lots of stacked amps and a two tier look, with guitars, bass and singer on the ground level and backing singers, drums and keyboard/organ on the upper level.

I actually thought the bands entrance onto the stage was underplayed, they strolled out quietly and it took a few seconds for much of the crowd to realise they were there. It summed up the band, they are much better and more important than many people seem to realise.

Chris was clear they were going to play songs off their new album, Happiness Bastards, as well as some of their old songs, starting with a song from the new album, their first in fifteen years.

However, as was established early on in the gig a 15 year gap was nothing compared to when they had last played Newcastle which turned out to be 1991! I felt quite privileged to be watching them play somewhere for the first time in 33 years!

There were brilliant, Chris is every inch the consummate rock and roll frontman, happy to throw a shape, preen himself in the giant mirror they had on stage and engage in some banter. His explanation about why we should care about one Georgia town in particular made me keen to investigate further.

I’ve always been a massive Otis fan, when the band originally covered Hard to Handle I was impressed, when they played it live it was even more impressive!

All in all what I realised is that the various hiatus the band have had, the gaps between albums, the gaps between tours has been musics loss, this is a brilliant rock and roll band, truly great at what they do and one who need to come back to the UK next year for festival season (if they could play Kendal Calling I’d really appreciate it!). This is music and a band who deserve to be rediscovered.

If they do come back to the UK go see them, as well as covering Otis they also covered the Stones but the best part is their own music, they know how to write a killer song!There is something in the water in Georgia that produces great musicians, Otis, Little Richard, The Allman Brothers, REM, TLC etc. What I think is beyond dispute is the Black Crowes can hold their own and sit well within that list.

As I’ve said earlier this is a great rock and roll band, go see them, listen to their music, it’s me for a full on Black Crowes revival (although for those in the know they’ve always been essential!)