Chris Robinson Brotherhood -- 9:30 Club - Feb 11 2015

Chris Robinson Brotherhood - If you like your flying burritos covered in nitty gritty dirt and cooked over canned heat, you will be grateful that Chris Robinson is far from dead as the Black Crowes lay dormant in recent years. For the past few years, the Crowes front man has assembled a fine old school hippie rock band, complete with second guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard. They probably have a lot of fun with this, as they set the tone tonight with an oldie, 'Shake, Rattle, and Roll' before heading off into the psychedelic sixties with more original jamming songs. If you like jam bands, they fit the bill with plenty of extended passages. But if you are more song oriented, the vocal melodies and composed song structures are there as well. Robinson is in fine voice, which is good to hear. The rhythm section has a laconic style and the guitar work is tasty as you would expect. The keyboards are the highlight for me as I love the old synthesizer sounds and his soloing had a lot of variety and was heavily psychedelic at times. He mostly spent the rest of his time on organ with a bit of piano in there, too. I will let true Deadheads and Black Crowes fans judge this band, as I am not fully comfortable in this arena. But there were enough good songs, solos, and overall style for me to have a good time tonight. And I was far from alone in that assessment.

 photo - Matt Mendenhall

Quote of the Night: While standing by the soundboard a fan came up first to me, before showing support to the soundman and the lighting technician... "Wow! Money in the bank, right there and there. YOU GUYS ARE WIZARDS!"