No, they weren't on the same bill. I saw the Crowes on Saturday night and haven't written anything because there wasn't that much to tell. Once you have seen a band 14 times, it gets harder for them to surprise you. They did their consistently good sounding show but with few frills, partially because Chastain has a curfew. There were no cover songs that I can remember but they introduced songs from their new album Before The Frost and one tune off the downloadable-only second half Until The Freeze. They are slowly falling away from good ole hard rock to Appalachian hillbilly rock that damn near sounds like country, although I like to think of it as funk-try. One notable occurrence was that Rich got to show off his singing ability with "What Is Home?" and nailed it much like on the latest album, which was recorded in its entirety live in front of a very lucky crowd in Levon Helm's barn/venue in Woodstock, New York.
On to the Sunday night service with Metallica. I wasn't planning on going to the show, what with their last two albums not impressing me at all, the debacle the last time I went to see them years ago at the Dome without lead singer James Hetfield, but my buddy Adam talked me in to it, and I'm glad he did. I've never been the biggest fan but those boys know how to put on a show, even in their forties. If Philips wasn't sold out, it was damn close with metal energy surging through the massive crowd of all ages. I was told by Adam that they played a handful of songs off the new album Death Magnetic as well as a lot of familiar older tunes. The stage was set up in the very middle of the arena and had mikes set up all around for them to conveniently move around to be able to face everyone in the house. Lars had his drum set on a rotating pedestal so we could see from every angle his flurry of arms and sticks. Kurt happened to be in front of us for his seemingly effortless yet stunningly technical solo during "One" so we could see his left hand race up and down the neck of his axe. Most bands are content with fire and pyrotechnics in their show, but we're not talking about most bands. We are talking about arguably the biggest band of my generation, like 'em or not. Metallica insists on having multi-colored flames choreographed with their music. We had pretty decent seats that weren't right up front but the heat from those explosions was enough to make you break a sweat. I can't imagine what it was like for them on stage. During the encore, various sized black orbs with Metallica written on them in their signature font (that's when you know you have made it big when you have your own font) started cascading from the ceiling. They ended the 2+ hour set with "Seek And Destroy" and very graciously thanked all of us for all the loyalty through the good times and the bad.
After 3 shows in 3 nights, I'm tired and going to bed. Peace
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