Music to Fall in Love To

Black Crowes at the Fillmore

December 12, 2010

By Jessica Wright

How to Nail a First Date (Well not Literally)

Blind dates, eww. I try to avoid them like interest charges on my credit card. The fact is I simply don’t invest in the idea that you have to pretend intimacy with a stranger just from being indebted over a free dinner. However, take me to a Black Crowes concert for a first date, and I might just get confused and think I love you.

See the Black Crowes are not only good music. They are good ol’ American music about peace and love-my gospel. After returning to the United States after 2 years abroad working for peace, and seeing the Black Crowes with someone who had helped rebuild New Orleans after Katrina, I felt my date and I had finally found our congregation, so “Heck, why don’t we just get married?” Chris Robinson, the man of oh-so-much soul could even be our pastor. After all, he did allow us to take a picture together after the show, making it the best date ever in the history of blind first dates.

Attending The Church of Peace

The reason the Crowes music is so beautiful is that together they make a joyful noise of sliding guitars, clapping, organ sounds and call outs that have you tapping your feet and giving call backs to join the Church of Peace-complete with American flag remade with a peace sign instead of stars in the background. Even the very pregnant background singer held evidence of love, appreciated by many women in the audience. How could you not feel love in this environment?

My favorite songs of the set were of course “Peace Anyway” and “Bring On, Bring On”-as we sang “Bring on…this flowering” and “May your song keep you alive,” but the longer songs of mostly instrumentals are the ones that really make you feel in a groove empty of space and time. You forget if the song just started, is in the middle or is nearing the end when you can’t remember the chorus. I didn’t particularly care for the Crowes cover of “Polly,” even though I can’t get enough of Robert Plant’s take on the song, but I’ll forgive the Crowes. I love them for their stuff, not their covers.

Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys Tour

Speaking of songs, below is the setlist from December 12th at the Fillmore, which might be the site of their last ever concert. Starting December 20th, 2010 the band will be on hiatus indefinitely to spend time with their families after rocking out for twenty years. My church, sad to say, is now closed.

Acoustic:

Soul Singing
Hotel Illness
Meet Me in the Morning (Bob Dylan cover)
Thorn in My Pride

My Heart’s Killing Me
Girl From a Pawnshop
What is Home
Polly (Dillard & Clark cover)
She Talks to Angels
My Morning Song

Electric:

And the Band Played On
Peace Anyway
How Much For Your Wings
Bring On, Bring On
Fearless (Pink Floyd cover)
Wiser Time
Jealous Again
Been a Long Time (Waiting on Love)

Encore:

Poor Elijah/Tribute to Johnson (Delaney and Bonnie cover)
Don’t Know Why (Eric Clapton cover)
Comin’ Home (Delaney and Bonnie cover)

Was it the Man or the Music?

Now elated moment aside and a couple more dates later, my date and I see that while we do both share a commitment to peace, we live two very different lifestyles, and the feelings of love we felt were really Black Crowes inspired. (Insert sigh here.) Well, looking on the bright side, at least we’ll always have the music of the Crowes and as I listen to them while I drive down dark country roads after work, I get to lose prior worries and feel above reality. I’m somewhere in love, but not with one person, with everything. And as for real love for one person, I know it will come later because I’m gonna continue, as Pastor Chris advises, to let my love light shine.

Meeting Pastor Chris After the Show: “We Do!…Believe in Love and Peace.”

Jessica, Crowes frontman Chris Robinson, and the mystery man who created "The Best First Date Ever"

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