C R O W A S I S

May 20, 2001, Tweeter Center. Lame name for a lame theater, but what a great show!

Once again eight passengers scrambled into the Starship for a hellish eight hour drive to Chicago. The chorus sang along in the back: Kate, Sven and Steve. Rich drove, and Liam had shotgun. Chris and Noel claimed the middle captain chairs, and Weird Old Eddie lay on the floor. His bones were creaking. So the trip began.

Kate and Sven

We drove straight to the Tweeter Center, formerly known as the New World Music Theater. The pigs wouldn't let us sit in their parking lot and we were forced to mill around inside the gates with nothing to drink except what they hoped we would buy and nothing to do, but look at sales racks. They had a boring looking Oasis key chain for fifteen dollars and a cool Crowes key chain, complete with bottle opener, for five. They also sold Crowes rolling paper, very cute. We could hear the bands warming up. The Crowes had finished practicing before we came in, so we were assailed by noxious notes from Spacehog and Oasis. Eventually we were allowed to take our seats. The lawn rush began!

picture has nothing to do with concert

We found our comfy place on the lawn, front and center. Then Ed had an idea. "Hey, let's play a game. Let's play Red Rover!" So the gang lined up. It was Rich, Ed and Liam against Chris, Steve and Noel. All went well until "Red Rover Red Rover send Noel right over." Ed and Liam went flying and then skidding through the dirt. A couple of nasty security guards decided that it was time to put an end to our games and kindly asked us to behave. Sven and Kate joined up for a laugh. Then, without warning Sven was on Rich's back and they became... LESTER BANGS. Noel offered Ed his back, in an attempt to beat LESTER at his own game, but just as Ed prepared to hop his creaking bones onto Noel's back, LESTER took a kill shot. Sven's foot knocked Noel's jaw right out of it's socket. Noel recovered from the blow with fist's flying into Rich. This time the security guards had back up standing by and were more forceful in their interruption. We sat again on our disgruntled indian blankets, front and center.

Spacehog spread over stage. Our open minds were quickly bolted shut by the obnoxious noise and lyrics vehemently venting from the stage. I rolled up in a disgruntled ball of blanket and waited patiently for the assult to end, thinking all the time of Liv Tyler, who was supposedly watching her fiance make a ridiculous fool of himself on that stage. At least he got laid (that's what he kept singing, anyway). Next was Oasis. The sun set on Oasis. I was expecting more than I got. They were pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. They performed "Morning Glory" and "Champaign Supernova," but no "Wonderwall." I wonder what it would have sounded like live.

Seriously, Liam does think that he is John Lennon. He sang "I Am the Walrus," and confused some of the words. The whole audience sang along and it was a surprisingly comforting "Join Together" moment, like when the Who sange "You Better You Bet." This time it was even more spectacular for the audience to unite to this song because you had Oasis fans and Crowes fans (and does Spacehog have any fans?) harmonizing together. Beautiful moment. Liam pranced around with a tamborine on his head and then they were done. They ungracefully walked off stage, with no wave of goodbye and that was that. Thank Heaven.

Liam

Then it was the Black Crowes who took the stage. The audience LEAPED. "EDDIE!!!" Ed climbed his pedestal and took his seat at the keyboards. Chris was wearing an Oasis shirt. It was more his style than Liam's, anyway. Score one for the Crowes, as the battle of the brothers kicked into full gear.

They went right into "Midnight from the Inside Out." This is a song, which, when I first heard it, I felt overwhelmed by noise pollution, but in concert it took on a totally 3D effect. For the first time I heard how the instruments fit together and I was groovin' with it. Now every time I listen to it, I hear more of it, and I love it. "Turn around and they all fall down." Next they played "Sting Me," one of my faves from Southern Harmony. Then, THEN, Chris invited us to all take a trip down the "Greasy Grass River." "Life is so easy on Greasy Grass River." I thought I witnessed a miracle during that song: I thought I saw the Oasis fan next to me nod he head to a couple of beats!

I just have to say that "Losing My Mind" was the most BEAUTIFUL Brotherly Love song I've every seen. Chris and Rich were really intimate with it and I feel honored to have seen its first performance. "Soul Singing" was next and honestly full of soul. Chris doesn't fake it. The back up singers were right on with it too. Great perforamance. Oh, "Shake Your Money Maker" really had me SHAKING! Ronnie and Lonnie Brookes joined the party and they were awesome. And I just have to give a shout out to Ed here. You GO, Man. He was UNBELIEVABLE.

I nearly died laughing durring Cosmic Friend, but then, suddenly, the band left the stage. I screamed and applauded, then began to cry and wail, in my desperation. They had to come back on stage. It was painful to see them walk away. Naturally, they did return for the encore. "Under A Mountain" is acctually one of my favorite songs from Three Snakes. "Twice As Hard" was awesome and "I Dig Love" (by George Harrison) was the perfect finale. Noel joined the Crowes and they jammed away. It was a beautiful song, and quite lengthy, very pleasurable. It was obvious that the Crowes ruled on this song. Beautiful.

That's pretty much all I have to report from the lawn, front and center. Any post concert adventures were fairly uneventful. The security guards were not convinced that the girl with the attitude was Liam Gallegher nor that Kate Hudson was among our group. Our attempts to get backstage to meet Eddie Harsch failed miserably and we were urged to leave the property. Climbing in a trash can and hoping to be wheeled through the back fence is not a good idea, especially not at the Tweeker Center. I'll see ya' next time, Ed.