Buckeye Randy

Who: The Black Crowes
When: September 27, 2024
Where: MGM Center Stage (Northfield, Ohio)

Have you heard the latest and prophetic single by The Black Crowes, “Wanting and Waiting”? It seemed very prophetic on this evening.

Mrs. Buckeye has been wanting and waiting a long time to see The Black Crowes. Whatever the reason, they have eluded her and this qualifies as a ‘bucket list’ concert for her. Myself? I was lucky enough to see them in 1991opening for ZZ Top. That show was a week or so before getting kicked off the tour for stage banter not aligning with tour promoters or ZZ Top.

We thought we would see The Black Crowes in Cleveland opening for Aerosmith in 2023…which was unfortunately postponed due to Steven Tyler’s voice issues. We then thought we would see the rescheduled show in early 2024…but that was also postponed. The entire Aerosmith tour was put on hold and then rescheduled for autumn of 2024…and then cancelled all together. Well, that sucks.

Wait! The Black Crowes almost immediately announced a U.S. tour titled, ‘Happiness Bastards Tour ’24 (The Reprise)’. The tour includes 32 stops kicking off with a show at MGM in nearby Northfield, Ohio. Well, that’s cool.

The MGM Northfield Park (formerly Rocksino) is a casino which is adjacent to a longstanding harness racing track. The casino has been open for ten years and offers four restaurants plus two rooms with live entertainment. The larger room is ‘Center Stage’ and has a capacity of 1800. This is not a theater but a multi-purpose room that can host conferences, seminars, trade-shows, receptions or concerts. I’ve seen some dandy shows here and any negativity I have toward a room with the warmth of a dentist’s office is balanced by the positive vibe of free parking sprawling in all directions for as far as the eye can see. Man, it's a beautiful thing.

A 30+ minute drive on Friday to a concert at the tail end of rush hour can be stressful. Not tonight, after leaving my neighborhood I have a grand total of four turns before pulling into the MGM parking lot. I love venues that are not in a downtown setting! Easy drive and free parking, the night is a success and the show hasn’t even started.

I am not a gambler and I really don’t mind walking through a casino which is good because there is no other option if you want to see a show at the MGM. The entrance to Center Stage is only accessible by walking the entirety of the casino and weaving a path past all the people playing slots. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

First order of business after purchasing $23 worth of alcohol is scoping out the the t-shirts. While standing in line, an unaccompanied and younger girl uses my t-shirt (Dropkick Murphys) as a conversation starter. She was very enthusiastic and regretted not wearing her DKM shirt, a very chatty person. I smile when Mrs. Buckeye sees that there might be marginal interest from other camps if she steps too far out of line. (I’m so glad she doesn’t read these reviews!)

Back to t-shirts. Another winner; a black tee with band logo on front and the back has tour name plus tour dates, a timeless combination. It seems so simple yet so many bands try to over think the design.

Three types of seats at MGM; aluminum bleachers in the back, basic folding chair with some padding for the bottom and the luxurious captain seats in the first 11 rows….Oooooohhh, call me captain. The lumbar support is appreciated but as a suggestion, arm rests with a cup holder would have been perfect.

I have to mention the pre gig music mix just because it included fabulous lesser known songs. “Kill City” by Iggy, “All This And More” by Dead Boys and “48 Crash” by Suzi. There were oldies like “C’Mon Everybody by Eddie Cochran but the real surprise…”I’m The One” by Mick Ronson, are you kidding me? I need to party with the author of that mix.

Age of the crowd was exactly what you would expect for a band that came out in 1991 with a retro ‘70’s blues/rock sound embodying Humble Pie. OK, not surprising that nearly everybody was 45-65 but it got me to thinking about older bands attracting younger fans. Why do some bands seem to attract new generations of fans and other bands do not? Some bands are timeless and others are snapshots. This is a topic for another time.

Opening this evening from Florida are Fortune Child who will be on the current tour for the first five shows. A three piece blues outfit with snappy drumming and lead guitarist extraordinaire, Buddy Crump. Every song felt like it was inspired by Zep’s ‘Dazed And Confused’ with a hint of ‘Inside Looking Out’ by Grand Funk. I mean that comparison is a good way, a sunburst Les Paul with warm distortion is never a bad thing. Unfortunately, their recorded work does not represent their live performance. Still, a good opener in this setting.

It's 9PM, the lights dim and AC/DC’s “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock n Roll)” blasts out at concert volume as the band takes their positions on stage. Everybody in the nearly sold-out venue is standing and singing as the music comes to a stop and the band blasts into “Bedside Manner” from their most recent album, “Happiness Bastards”. Strong opening.

The band is Chris and Rich Robinson plus long time bass player Sven Pipien. They are supported by hired guns; Erik Deutsch (keys), Nico Bereciartua (guitars), Cully Symington (drums) plus Mackenzie Adams and Lesley Grant on backing vocals.

Some older bands seemingly ignore their most recent releases instead choosing to play fan favorites from yesteryear. Cheap Trick and Alice Cooper have had some top-notch releases over the last 20 years but these songs rarely find their way into the live setting. Other artists push the envelope and design an entire tour featuring new music of questionable quality while ignoring fan favorites (I’ll mention no last names, Todd R.).

The Happiness Bastards Tour attempts to balance everything. Three of the first six are from the latest release which is their first album in the last 15 years. They save the album’s best track (Wanting and Waiting) for a little later in the show. Nice representation of new material.

The band’s two most popular albums (Shake Your Money Maker, The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion) comprised nearly half (8 /18) of the show. Favorites from these for me were “Twice As Hard”, “Hard To Handle”, “She Talks To Angels”, “Sting Me”, “Jealous Again” and the show closer, “Remedy”. The only glaring omission from those two albums was “Sometimes Salvation”. How can you not play that!

I like when a band pulls out a couple deep tracks not performed every tour plus I love a cover version as a surprise and the band checks both those boxes. However, playing the deep track “Virtue & Vice” from their lowest charting album as an encore seems odd. It would have made sense to flip this with the surprise cover song that brought down the house, “Stay With Me” by Faces. The other cover of note was Velvet Underground’s “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’” with Rich Robinson taking over lead vocals.

Let’s talk about the actual performance. Well, The Black Crowes are not supposed to be shiny and polished, they are supposed to be a little frayed around the edges. That looseness is actually preferred with their brand of swashbuckling, over-amped R&B. What is also preferred is a party atmosphere on stage, the band did not deliver the party atmosphere for me.

The sound was not great, probably the worst I’ve heard in several years over multiple venues. I blame the band because we were in the 9th row and I’ve seen previous shows at MGM in similar locations (Todd Rundgren 7th Row, Grand Funk 8th Row) and the sound was fine. Maybe this is just how they sound live, their sound was sub-par when I last saw them in 1991.

Chris Robinson seemed engaged with his strutting and posturing but some of the between song banter came off a little flat and even snarky at times. Maybe Rich Robinson never smiles…maybe he just never smiles when in the same room with brother Chris. Impossible not to think of their long running feud due to almost no camaraderie on stage between the siblings.

All negative comments said, the crowd seemingly didn’t really care or notice as we all stood for the entire show. It did seem that some of our responses after songs were obligatory applause and not thundering ovations. It wasn’t indifference but it might be because we were ‘Wanting and Waiting’ for it to get better.

The final verdict came in from Mrs. Buckeye, "Glad I saw them but it was only good, not great". That sums it up for me as well.