New venue! I'd never been to Smith's Olde Bar until tonight but hope to visit again soon. Nice, small joint to observe some tunes. Rich (guitar playing brother from The Black Crowes) certainly didn't put a sour taste in my mouth for the quaint stage in the attic. He may not have the soulful range of his lead singing brother, but he's got some chops. I went into this without hearing a single note of his solo stuff, hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Although continually stoic-faced in his stage presence, the man can write/sing/jam a song. I guess a big part of being a front man is attitude, which Chris (whom I'll be seeing Nov 12) obviously exudes. You would never know Rich was part of an internationally toured band for almost 25 years. Never underestimate the value of modesty in a rock star. His mellow, laid-back grooves accompanied by some obscure covers of rock history, including Velvet Underground, Fleetwood Mac, and Pink Floyd's "Fearless," filled the room with smiles from wall to wall. Visually speaking, I've always enjoyed watching the hands and fingers of a musician on stage as well as the facial expressions. Perhaps that's inherited from my Mom's therapist fascination with hands and the effortless maneuvering of a musicians' digits up and down the neck of an axe or across the ivories of a piano. Audibly speaking, my brother's influence can't help but be recognized when a single note can evoke the hair on my neck and arms to uncontrollably stand on end and my skin to goosebump spontaneously after being kicked in the teeth with raw, honest, LOUD, power (even though we currently disagree on the validity of a lot of past and modern bands). Even the suppressed admiration of a lot of 60's and 70's groups from my Dad can't help but find the light of day in my soul. I remember him briefly telling me about Led Zeppelin (which he described as "Acid Rock," a term I hadn't heard before) as we drove past what is now Pueblo's in D-town. A more attentive audience he had never captured, whether he knew it or not. I stumbled over his vinyl collection after he died and it was like the scene from Almost Famous. Oh, the questions forever unasked and, in turn, forever unanswered.
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