The Black Crowes, soulful purveyors of music’s most authentic brand of rock n’ roll, played the second show of their “Euphoria or Bust” tour last night - June 28, 2008 – at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in New Hampshire. We were there…In the front row…It was awesome.
This new tour follows the release of their much acclaimed 7th studio album, Warpaint, and marks the debut of the band’s two new members, guitarist Luther Dickinson and keyboardist Adam MacDougall. I think the story of the night was Luther Dickinson (pictured on the left), who featured as prominently as Chris Robinson’s always impeccable vocals throughout the night. The set list seemed to be designed, in large part, as a platform for highlighting Dickinson’s slide guitar playing acumen. He really was incredible; ripping frequent, extended solos and injecting – if you can imagine it – even more richness into slide guitar staples from the Crowes’ catalogue, like Descending (hence the post title, which comes from the lyrics in Descending).
Right from the start, the band as a whole played as strong as I have ever heard them, quickly settling into their blend of, as Dennis Cook put it in a recent Crowes interview, “bohemian gospel, dirt road blues, freshly harvested psychedelia, uncut funk and tear-in-your-beer country.” My favorite song of the night, which also happens to be my favorite Crowes song of all, was Thorn In My Pride – it was just a great show! To top it all off, one of our other favorite bands, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, opened the show (Grace is pictured below)! I could go on…but anyway, here is the Crowes’ set list, as best I can recollect:
