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Since the demise of The Black Crowes both of the Robinson brothers have kept themselves busy with new projects.
The Chris Robinson Brotherhood has released three outstanding albums since 2011, but having been created as an LA residency band with a view of simply touring around California, the show in London on Monday night marked only their first trip to these shores.
Camden’s Koko is a fabulous venue and was the perfect setting for the show, it added a sense of grandeur to the occasion and along with the unmistakable smell of incense coming from the stage it just felt right.
The band performed for nearly three hours across 2 sets that were both the stuff of the assembled middle-aged hippies’ dreams. With an out of this world, spacey psychedelic spin on the Crowes drawn out southern rock jams they locked into deep grooves and spun them into otherworldly compositions.
The only downfall was that the keys were not only too heavy in the mix, but too prominent in the arrangements, and became a little tiresome after a while. But whilst the band was locked into their groove there was no other place on this planet having as much fun as the people at this show.
Excellent versions of ‘Tulsa Yesterday’ and ‘Rosalee’, with it’s Are We Gettin’ High? refrain, stole the show in set one, but the second set felt even more euphoric with a super funky disco-esque version of the Crowes ‘I Ain’t Hidin’ and ‘The Music’s Hot’ being highlights amongst a set of highlights.
In the same way the Crowes and Grateful Dead cultivated a massive bank of songs to draw different set lists from on a nightly basis, The CRB can tap into an astounding selection of tracks meaning you could go and see them night after night, as many of these fans do, and take a different psychedelic trip every time.
The musicianship on show was second to none, from Mark ‘Muddy’ Dutton’s groovy bass, through Neal Casal’s immaculate guitar sound, to Robinsons soulful voice the band were one unified entity creating crescendo after crescendo, and it was beautiful.
They should come back again – it was a trip worth taking.