Concert review: The Black Crowes at The Palladium (October 16)

by Mike Orren

DALLAS — I'm a longtime Black Crowes fan and have seen them nearly a dozen times in concerts dating back to 1991. That said, I approached last night's show at the Palladium with more anticipation than any time since their early days. The Crowes are touring on a new double album, Before the Frost ... Until the Freeze, which includes their strongest work since their sophomore Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. I'd also not seen the band since they added Luther Dickinson (best known as the frontman for The North Mississippi All-Stars) as a featured guitarist.

Having checked recent setlists, I was pleased to see that they'd been dominated by the new album, sprinkled with some old favorites, but light on the Big Hits. I love "Hard to Handle" and "She Talks to Angels" as much as the next southern rocker -- but I've heard them enough times that I'm not likely to get anything new out of that experience.

The Crowes took the stage at 10:00 sharp (following Truth & Salvage Co., who we missed) and launched into "Good Morning, Captain" from the new disc. The band, 3/5 of which has mostly been together for decades, easily settles into a tight groove playing jam-infused melodic rock with shadows of The Band, The Faces, Little Feat, The Rolling Stones and a dozen others -- but always sounding completely like the Black Crowes.

Frontman Chris Robinson may look a bit more haggard, but his voice is still in fine form. To my ear, it's stronger, more refined and has a wider range that it did in his younger days. Founding drummer Steve Gorman is one of the best in the biz. Rich Robinson, while taking fewer of the flashy solos is clearly the backbone of the band, serving as a director and guiding the pace of each jam. And the new secret weapon of Luther Dickinson is a huge addition: The Crowes have always featured guitar players that can rip a mean solo, but Dickinson brings slide guitar and, on "Roll Old Jeremiah," an electric mandolin. It gives the band an even earthier sound, and the slide heighten comparisons to the Allman Brothers (who happened to be playing a few miles away at Fair Park).

The ubiquitous gospel backup singers supplemented the harmonies on most numbers and new keyboardist Adam MacDougall brought more honky-tonk piano alongside the Hammond organ that is part of the band's trademark sound.

An extended, jammy "Jeremiah" was one of the more successful numbers, rivaled by the disco-esque "I Ain't Hidin'." I was pleased to see the crowd grooving to the new stuff, although that might have been chalked up to an exceedingly boozy bunch (at least around us) and the prevalence of pot smoke in the air. (Pot isn't a huge surprise when you've got a band that includes rolling papers in its souvenir swag, but in the era of non-smoking venues, how does one get away with it?)

At the one-hour mark, the band lit into "Hard to Handle," and the Palladium suddenly became much more crowded, as throngs of people flooded in from the smoking porch and started dancing and high-fiving. My wife later opined that this was the exact moment that the Crowes gauged the audience and shifted from challenging, new extended jams into a largely by-the-numbers run through the early hits. "Twice as Hard" followed fast and a departure and encore with "Talks to Angels" wasn't far behind. They wrapped with a cover of "Chevrolet," from their Amorica album and bid us good night at 11:30. Most of their recent shows have been closer to two hours, which left me wondering if they weren't put off by the crowd response.

But the show we got was first-rate, and a reminder that this is still one of the most potent rock acts around, with a long road ahead of them.

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