Digging deep into their rich, southern-fried catalog at Phoenix's Union Hall, the Black Crowes skipped over the usual chart-toppers as if they were poisonous snakes. With the exception of "Good Friday" and "Jealous Again," which they offered up as encores, most of the songs in the Crowes' mellow, 90-minute set were obscure titles that could be traced to "Amorica" and "The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion."
Churning out lengthy jams laced with Eddie Harsch's honky-tonk piano and backwoods slide guitar deftly executed by Marc Ford and Rich Robinson, it seemed as if the Crowes, tired of resisting comparisons to their Southern brethren the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd, have comfortably reclaimed their roots. Forget about being derivative. The Crowes have stumbled onto the source of Southern rock and are milking it for all it's worth.
Kicking off the set with "Under the Mountain," the first cut on "Three Snakes and One Charm," Chris Robinson seemed reticent and humble as he sang the words, "When I feel sour/ I need a shower/ Or just a slap in the face." Clad in grey-and-white striped overalls, the thin, stringy front man pogo-ed in one place, often clapping his hands like a Baptist preacher.
But Robinson wasn't preaching. If anything, amid large flickering candles which dimly lit the stage, he sang ballads like "Nonfiction" and "Descending" as if they were aching confessionals: "Have mercy, baby/I'm descending again."
Only during "Hotel Illness," when an overly zealous fan rushed the stage and nearly toppled the frail singer, did Robinson spew a sermon to the audience: "You know, we've been on the road for 85 days and we love this shit, but what does that kind of behavior do for anybody?" he asked, gesturing towards the attacker who was being wrestled into the wings by a security guard.
The remainder of the set was a glorious wash of laid-back southern comfort, evidence that the Crowes can work some powerful voodoo magic without relying on their obvious hits. Having survived some serious sibling rivalry which nearly split apart the band, the Crowes are definitely back in harmony.