The Black Crowes were back in the Bay Area, celebrating the once-improbable reunion of the band, marking the 30-something anniversary of their best album and helping reopen Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View.
They did not, however, bring many fans along for the ride.
Shoreline was about as empty as I’ve ever seen it in the nearly 30 years I’ve covered shows at the venue. No official attendance figures were given, but it appeared there were less than 5,000 people there — which, if correct, would mean that it was less than 25 percent full.
The 100 section was pretty densely populated, but it grew much sparser as one moved back to the 200s. And the big lawn area was an absolute ghost town. (I did make it back to there to check out the new video screens, which are an absolute game changer in terms of providing better views for people hanging out on the grass.)
Part of the attendance issue surely had to do with COVID scares still keeping many people away from attending live shows. But I’d put even more of blame on the tour itinerary itself, which was overly ambitious and greatly overestimated this Southern rock band’s ability to still draw huge crowds some 30 years after its commercial prime.
There was no way that the Crowes should have played both the Concord Pavilion (which they did on Saturday) and Shoreline. Promoters could’ve combined all the tickets sold for both shows and they’d still have been well short of a sell out at Shoreline.
The band, however, didn’t let the small crowd dampen its enthusiasm and went on to deliver a wonderful 100-minute set during what was the second show of the Shoreline season. The Crowes gig immediately followed Dierks Bentley’s Beers On Me tour stop on Saturday night — which was the first show to play Shoreline since fall 2019.
The band — consisting of vocalist Chris Robinson, guitarist Rich Robinson, bassist Sven Pipien, guitarist Isaiah Mitchell, keyboardist Joel Robinow, drummer Brian Griffin and backing vocalists MacKenzie Adams and Leslie Grant — is out on the road to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Shake Your Money Maker.”
And it’s certainly an achievement well worth celebrating, something the Robinson brothers and company would underscore as they devoted the first half (or so) of the show to performing the hit-filled debut in its entirety — in order, from start to finish.
The Crowes performed on a set that was designed to look like a juke joint, complete with a big jukebox toward the front of the stage and even a bartender applying his trade for a couple of customers in the back. Rich Robinson made his presence felt first, lighting up his electric guitar as he rocked the opening notes of “Twice as Hard” — track one of “Shake Your Money Maker.” Then out came his older brother Chris, wearing matching white pants and coat, twirling an umbrella overhead and putting his all into each of the lyrics.
The two siblings jelled so well together onstage that it was hard to believe that these were indeed the same two guys whose former feuding ways caused the band to split up around six years ago and made any type of reconciliation seem, at best, unlikely.
Chris Robinson sounded as strong as ever on the microphone as he rocked through “Jealous Again” and then slowed it down a bit for “Sister Luck.” And he is at least as good a front man — part Mick Jagger, part Al Green — as he is a singer.
“This next song is about young love gone bad,” said the former Marin County resident, who now lives in Los Angeles. “That shouldn’t be a shock to you because all young love goes bad.”
“Shake Your Money Maker” is chock full of hits — including “Hard to Handle” and “Talks to Angels” — and they all sounded great on this night. Yet, the best moment on the album is actually the lesser-known “Seeing Things,” which pretty much stole the show on Sunday night with its gospel-tinged backing vocal work, emotive electric guitar and soulful lead vocals.
The group brought the topnotch album performance to a conclusion with track 10 — “Stare It Cold.”
“All right, Shoreline, that was ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ — the whole (expletive) thing,” Chris Robinson said.
Although the album was over, the Crowes show was not and they went on to play “Sting Me,” “Thorn In My Pride” and other cool offerings before closing the main set with “Remedy.” The group then returned for an encore cover of the Rolling Stones’ “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It).”
