If Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes were to have suddenly started his own cult in the midst of showing off how well he can still sing and gyrate at the Eccles in Salt Lake City last night, chances are good we’d have followed whatever path he’d led us down.
If there’s one thing those touring as the self-proclaimed Happiness Bastards (after their 2024 album of the same name) wanted us to believe in, it was the joy accompanying good music.
But instead of being invited into their new religion, we were willingly baptized in a lot of the familiar and a sprinkling of the new. Far from being labeled a nostalgia act, The Black Crowes, who initially formed in 1984, appears to be experiencing a career second wind. It’s a good spot to be in.
In a set that lasted 18 songs strong, Chris, brother Rich Robinson, and the rest of their eight-member band set their own proverbial fire Tuesday, helping prove that age needn’t much exist in the land of straight-up rock and roll. While naysayers say the genre is fast fading, it’d be hard to prove that to anyone who took in last night’s performance.
Owning up to a voice that sounds every bit as whiskey-soaked and decades aged as it ever did, Chris sounded as comfortably at home and extra incredible on favorites like “Twice as Hard,” “Sometimes Salvation,” and “Sting Me” as he and the rest of his band ever have. (Side note: Those background singers really helped tie it all together.) The newer songs match the ones that have come before, too. This bodes well.
By the time the one-song encore was presented in all its glory—a speedy run-through of Ellmore James’ “Shake Your Moneymaker” that had everyone on their feet and dancing on both balconies and throughout aisles—a final truth seemed more than obvious: the band better already be planning their return. A mostly filled Eccles theater of believers is probably already demanding it.
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