The Underground Press

Reports from the archives...
November 11, 1996 - The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA


Wiser Time ->
Ballad In Urgency
Bring On, Bring On Jam -> Bring On, Bring On
P.25 London
Tied Up And Swallowed
Girl From A Pawnshop
Hotel Illness
Sting Me (Slow)
Girl From The North Country
Under A Mountain
Somebody's On Your Case
Feathers
High Head Blues -> Jam
Blackberry
- encore -
Nonfiction -> Jam
Happy
Jealous Again

http://www.crowesbase.com/tapelisting.cfm?TapeID=338

Who knew that this Monday night show in Norfolk, VA would be the only one from the 1996 North American Tour that did not make it into the hands of traders, tapers and collectors? While there may be other shows from this fabled tour that are of poor quality (10/20/1996 Montreal) or required remastering to improve subpar sound (10/13/1996 Cleveland), one would say this show is special simply due to its absence. But that would be selling this particular performance short. Each show from this tour is special in its own way, but this one is outstanding. When this show eventually becomes available to fans (sourced from the digital soundboard master tape), I think this show will fast become a favorite. The sound quality of this show (and others) will be familiar to the ears of fans who have heard the 12/13/1996 Pantages Theatre show on The Black Crowes Online Radio. As we work on the archives this summer in preparation to make more music available, I will try to provide some reports on the more interesting contents.

The excellent setlist always drove me crazy due to the total unavailability of the show, despite CIA-level global searches for it. 6 songs from Tall, 4 from Three Snakes And One Charm, 2 from The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion, 1 from Amorica (5 if you want to get technical), 1 from Shake Your Moneymaker and 3 outstanding covers. This is a show full of gems:

In what appeared to be a mini-tradition on the tour, the beloved Theme From Monday Night Football plays over the PA to kick off the events of what is to be a heavy evening, which is a description that could be used to describe the previous two Monday evenings (Providence and Wallingford) as well. Right out of the gate, the Wiser Time -> Ballad In Urgency opener is extremely tight, confident and boiling over with passionate playing from everybody. The jam in between is a killer. After playing shows almost every day for nearly 8 weeks and due to leave in a couple days for a short European trek, the band was certainly peaking at this point in the tour - and it shows.

I was hoping for it, and seemingly living up to my own personal mythology around the show, they perform the beautiful, slow extended intro to Bring On, Bring On, a slightly heavier sounding variation on the intro jam played at the Supper Club on July 23, 1996. In an act of organic perfection, the jam segues into one of my 3 favorite songs from Three Snakes And One Charm. This is an amazing performance of Bring On, Bring On.

Some nights have a more quicksilver sequencing than others, but this setlist is like a perfect storm. If nature itself created the setlists for the band, it seems, well, natural that the next two songs in the set, P.25 London and Tied Up And Swallowed would be played back to back. 'A funky combination' would be a good way of understating (and undermining) the sonic lashing of an experience provided by the combined snarl of Marc and Rich's interplay on that pair of songs that Monday evening.

This show is one of three occasions when the band played both 'girls' (North Country and Pawnshop) in the same show. First up on this evening was Girl From A Pawnshop, which starts off a little rough due to a couple of decidedly out of tune strings. After 20 seconds, they shake that off and begin taking the song and the audience to the usual heights. The 'P.S. all my love' ending does not fail to deliver, as usual. Hotel Illness is next and without harmonica, as was the practice on this tour. Great performance of a great song, 'nuff said.

For over 10 years, only people who attended the show knew that Sting Me was played Slow that night. This organ heavy version is a real treat and some lyric miscues on the backing vocals during the first verse lead to Chris doing some fun overenunciation of the lines in the second verse, assuring no additional lyric miscues from Rich, Marc and Johnny. It's a fun performance.

Girl From The North Country, which was a new cover that Fall, is performed for the seventh time on this evening. Chris and Rich experience some vocal miscues near the tail end of the song, but all in all this is one of the better performances of this great song from the tour. Under A Mountain is standard greatness, featuring the typical monster presence of Eddie. This song features what is simply one of the best organ introductions ever.

Somebody's On Your Case, a cover recorded for a Three Snakes b-side and in regular rotation in the sets that fall is up next. Tight and funky, wah-driven playing with Chris delivering the energetic vocals that the lyric demands. Listening to Rich and Marc's interplay is an addicting habit to say the least. Considering his drumming is perfect throughout the show, Steve's work on this number stands out.

The performance of Feathers is a slow-burning study in the sound of evil, with some added effect-driven forboding sounds by guitar scientist Marc Ford anchored by the scarier-than-usual tone of Rich's ominous groove. Once again, Steve owns space and time, has Johnny locked in perfectly and Chris' vocals on this are compelling, to say the least.

The outro of High Head Blues grooves as good as it smoked the previous Monday night in Providence. The performances of this song on the tour are essentially fantastic across the board. All of the outros are worth hearing due to the fork in the jam, or fork in the road, or whatever it is where they decide to either continue and speed it up psychedelic style (like 11/4/1996) or go for the psychedelic reggae breakdown jam (like 12/14/1996). This version is around the time they were beginning to experiment with the psychedelic reggae jam. A crisply played Blackberry closes out the set as it did the previous Monday evening.

The encores in 1996 could be anything from 2 to 5 songs. This one is the 3 song model and the sequence reminds me of the previous Monday evening show I attended in Providence which ended with a similar encore (Nonfiction, Silver Train, Remedy). First of all, the Nonfiction outro occurs entirely in outer space., with Rich and Marc tinkering around with the controls to the heart of the sun. Then, like with Silver Train the week before, they completely change the mood with an uptempo Stones cover. They just flat out nail Happy here. Chris, Rich and Marc all hit their vocals and the playing is inspired. Who doesn't love covers from Exile on Main Street?

Jealous Again is a great closer, and I'm a fan of this song, definitely one of the three I would have wanted to hear from the first album, and given they only played one song from it, this was a great pick to end a great show. This show is just another reason why fans can never seem to stop talking about and listening to live Black Crowes from the Fall of 1996.