The Black Crowes – Freak ‘n’ Roll… Into The Fog

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Eagle Vision
Produced by Anthony Pagano

The first ever live home video from The Black Crowes has been a much anticipated thing. Fans have always wanted a visual document of a full Crowes show, so this release is probably the most welcome thing short of a new studio album. The chance finally came at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium last year, on the Crowes full US reunion tour.

However, clearly the desire to be artistic was too strong for editor Sean Fullan and producer Anthony Pagano during the creation of the final DVD, and every few songs viewers have to suffer grainy, shaky footage spliced into the concert while the songs continue in the background. How many times do over-enthusiastic editors need to ruin fantastic live DVDs before they stop? It’s fine to do whatever weird and wonderful artistic nonsense they like in the special features (which they’ve done here as well), but the concert footage is considered sacred by fans and should be left alone. A concert is a concert, it doesn’t have pointless grainy handycam footage, backstage footage or anything else between the songs. And it certainly doesn’t have it during songs. Live DVDs should not be such a lottery. A DVD of a show should be complete and uninterrupted; fans should never be uncertain about what they’re going to get when I play it.

Granted this one does at least keep the soundtrack of the concert going uninterrupted while it meanders off on its visual sidetracks, but when the band are performing, and we can hear them, but we can’t see them (surely the entire point of a DVD?), it becomes unexplainably infuriating. Especially when what we’re watching is at times so obviously flawed (the first occurrence is supposed to be the show, but through a handycam. However Chris’ clothes quite plainly change several times during the sequence). And then to do it through the first minute or so of undisputed fan-favourite Remedy with pointless and uninteresting back-stage wanderings is absolutely unforgivable.

Capturing the Black Crowes in full flight (excuse the pun) is a difficult thing to do, especially in a single gig. They need to be viewed across a whole tour to get the full picture, since they change their setlist completely every night. The first half of the set-list could be considered rather questionable, with too many songs from Three Snakes & One Charm ((Only) Halfway To Everywhere is a terrible opener) and not enough from By Your Side or Lions, but they don’t tend to play the greatest hits all the time (which are already present on the Live CD and the Tribute To A Work In Progress Greatest Hits album anyway). Soul Singing and Sting Me are excellent, but Welcome To The Good Times is terrible (probably one of the worst Crowes songs) and Jealous Again sounds oddly weak. No Speak No Slave however, sounds more powerful than usual. Everyone has their own perfect Black Crowes set-list, so pleasing everyone with a single show is understandably impossible, but a less mellow setlist would have been a better idea for a DVD recording.

A real highlight however, is the three-man acoustic segment in the middle of the show, with just Marc Ford and Rich Robinson on guitar for the instrumental b-side Sunday Night Buttermilk Waltz before being joined by singer Chris Robinson for acoustic renditions of Cursed Diamond and the classic She Talks To Angels. Rich then keeps the acoustic guitar out as the rest of the band return for superb versions of Wiser Time and Nonfiction. Then great versions of Seeing Things, Hard To Handle and Let Me Share The Ride keep the groove going, making this part of the show comfortably the best. To close, the live debut of a cover of The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down by The Band is simply magnificent.

Marc Ford’s dubious moustache aside, the band are on fine form and look like they’re having a great time (except Rich, who is permanently miserable). The footage is excellent, the sound is fantastic (much better than the Live album) and the editing of the actual show is spot-on. Having waited so long for a proper video from The Black Crowes, the constant interruptions of the concert footage make this an ultimately disappointing release. Which it shouldn’t have been, because the concert is mostly excellent. The thing the fans have wanted most all these years has been tampered with and at least partially ruined by the editing, which is a real tragedy.

“ could be considered rather questionable ”

Tracklist: (Only) Halfway To Everywhere / Sting Me / No Speak No Slave / Soul Singing / Welcome To The Goodtimes / Jealous Again / Space Captain / My Morning Song / Sunday Night Buttermilk Waltz / Cursed Diamond / She Talks To Angels / Wiser Time / Non Fiction / Seeing Things / Hard To Handle / Let Me Share The Ride / Mellow Down Easy / Remedy / The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down

Written by Andy Lye
More: Live DVDs, Rock, The Black Crowes