“For is the beauty of the song she sings, as to send the white bird to flight.” Welcome back friends, freakers and temporary earthbound beings! It’s Sunday so it’s time for our CRB, RRA week in review. And oh what a week it was! Starting out in the far, northeast reaches of the country (VT), the band left a trail of smoking craters and California moon dust swirling in their crafts wake. Eventually dancing their way into Cleveland for a Saturday night show that turned the House Of Blues into the House Of Gurus, west coast sunshine and love. The week also saw the band bringing out a bag full of classic CRB tales, new directions within familiar jams and first time played Barefoot jewels from the new record. A week where every single show seemed to build on the last, adding another brick of boogie to their winding barefoot path west. So without further delay, let’s tap back into the last 6 days inside this welcoming wonderland of groove, where it’s truly ALL of our duty to get down!
When we last left our psychedelically sequestered servants to the sound, they were pulling out of Hartford after a night of collective consciousness raising enlightenment. A low speed burn carried the cannonball north to the eastern shores of Lake Champlain where our cosmic roadshow setup shop in Burlington, VT. The band, dusting off another series of mystical ancient musical scrolls, left the stage in a pile of orange, blue and silver splinters. There was nothing Lazy about the opening Parsons penned propulsive push. The set seemed to come on with a sort of hushed musical rage. Not hurried or necessarily loud, but fully surrounded by a powerful feeling of freedom. The floor was jumping and lined with the love and light of the living. Neal lead us the power and pull of Reflections while CR soothed all the fellow “victims of gravity” over Adams acid angled layers. As it always seems to, Tulsa again provided a flower barreled starter pistol pop and we were off and into the arial ascent of the first set. Again paired with the line walking strut of Waylon’s classic and abandoning all gravitational shackles by the time the set reached the smooth set closing send up of Clear Blue> Sunday Sound. Only the CRB can generate the type of fever it takes to lead off a second set with something as rock & roll required and reverential as the Stones, Let It Bleed. With Neal sliding all over the lead and CR’s driving right hand in effect, it was the perfect start and set the tables for classics like Someday Past The Sunset and a closing bundle of bliss and exploratory consistency titled Tough Mama> Ride> Rosalee. As the devoted and converted stumbled out, the band was already looking southeast toward the Casco Bay and the next gathered collection of peace freaks and open eyes and heads.
PDC hit the peninsula with his stoned beak and majestic stare fixed on the Port City Music Hall. This is a show I’ve already been inundated with inquiries on and I’m absolutely on board with all the buzz. Just a quick look at the first set shows what the anticipation for this pull is all about. The first closed with the towering colossal quad of Star, Clear Blue> Beware and Beggars. The mind bending musical compositions didn’t dull in the second. Whether it was the bubble and bounce of Dream Baby or the tripped out deep breathing closing stretch of Ain’t It Hard> Vibration> Ain’t Hiding, the set held a little something special for everyone, from wide eyed first timers to our wise old traveling Brotherhood ambassadors. this was an extra omni luminous evening of a thousand shooting stars and yet another page in their bohemia bound book of freak fables and lore.
After a deserved day off, the band and crew set out south, for the head waters of the Narragansett Bay. Raising the flag in the town of Providence, RI where the gathered contingent was ready to stomp on the tarot, dance and smile. You are all going to want to highlight this evenings first set Meanwhile> Tumbleweed for later consumption! The places they go in that 23 minutes is truly indescribable with current tongues. Somewhere the whole flower top peyote bud was swallowed and Adams keys seemed to open our eyes to the unseen subconscious pathways connecting the two. The wizard was certainly at the controls and first in funk and flight through the night. The previously rarely seen or heard live Wanders Lament made another delightful appearance and when the first set closed with Rosalee we should have known to buckle up and all open our third eyes heading into the second. The bounce and Bo Diddly riff of Love’s Made A Fool Of You had the house in a feral frenzy to open the final set. The energy contained in the 3 song run of Barefoot brethren (Hark, Seer, Blonde Light) could have easily matched that generated by the falls ahead at our next stop and carried easily into the powerful reverberations of Good To Know> Narcissus> Shore Power! A westward setting sun would then pull our California caravan westward toward the rumbling rush of Niagra, NY with a trail of traveling devoted close behind.
Water always finds its way, and as we’ve learned, so will the love, light and boogie the band continues to deliver every night. Their one set, 12 song, lysergic square in Niagara, NY, did just that and so much more in relatively compact burst of Brotherhood. Flawless and inspired takes on songs such as Roan County, Seer and She Shares My Blanket, both liter the liquid landscape and float in the rev and roar of a huge closing Got Love! The always welcomed double encore of Appaloosa followed by Bye & Bye was a perfect way to wave goodbye to east coast heads before starting the slow and steady seasonal march back toward the promised land.
Not only does the city of Cleveland claim home to one of CR’s favorite records stores in the States, it’s also a frequent tour stop for the CRB and the site of many past epic multi-night stands from the band. This may have been a one night only sort of thing this time around, but it truly held enough highlights to fill even a week long residency in the city. Seven Nights To Rock has firmly earned its spot on the list beside other recent opening covers like Sweet Thang/Cisco and Lazy Days. Building on the propulsive version performed a few nights back at the Capitol, they kicked off with the aforementioned Seven Nights and preceded to tear through the dusty trifecta of High Is Not The Top, Tornado and Tulsa. It all seemed to build toward the roof and mind blowing revolution that was Lizzie Mae> Can You Hear Me! Saturday Night and Venus in Chrome back to back out of the gate set the second half of the night in time and motion with Tony and Jeff. This rhythm section from one of Saturns undiscovered rings absolutely pushed things to the back wall, holding them there with a lubricating, almost glue like groove that ran through the entire final set. But without a doubt, the jewel of the night was the five song Barefoot run! Specifically the illuminating Glow emanating from the center. First times played are always a special thing to witness and this was an introduction to a new old (electric) friend we all won’t soon forget. They closed the week with a fitting signal still broadcasting from some “New York station” as Rock & Roll came through loud and clear in the encore slot for one last dance of delirium and glee before waving goodbye and packing it up to do it all over again in Grand Rapids on Sunday Night!
I was raving just last night about how tightly locked in and amazing this band sounds right now. No version of the band has ever seen the heights we are being introduced to now on literally a nightly basis. If you haven’t caught a show live this tour and there’s one even remotely close to your geographic or mental state of mind, do whatever it takes to make it. We are breathing rarified fresh air at the moment with every show building on and seemingly surpassing the last. I think it’s clear we are all witnessing a sort of return to those hallucinatory San Francisco halcyon days we draw so much guidance from. Come out and join us in the congregation of what’s turning out to be a historical stretch of music that shows absolutely zero signs of fading. We love you! The CRB loves you!! California loves you!!! Freak On brothers and sisters!!!!
#crb #chrisrobinsonbrotherhood #sleepinpeacewilddarkriders#freetheillegalplants #letthecrbsetyoufree #freakfamily #barefootinthehead#freakflag #blissmerchants #ravensreels #freaktransmissions #crbismagic#crbeings #spaceisonthephone #alanforbes ✌️️
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(Info & Tickets for the week of 11/12-11/19)
11/12 – Grand Rapids, MI
11/14 – Columbus, OH
11/16 – Minneapolis, MN
11/17 – Milwaukee, WI
11/18 – Chicago, IL
11/19 – Madison, WI
