On December 1st and 2nd, the doors of Portland, Oregon’s Revolution Hall became the mouth of the rabbit hole through which one entered the aural world of Chris Robinson Brotherhood. For two nights, Chris Robinson (lead vocals, guitar), Neal Casal (guitar), Adam MacDougall (keys), Jeff Hill (bass) and Tony Leone (drums) took fans on exploratory adventures through their catalog of psychedelically tinged folk-blues tunes.
The band came out to a packed house on Saturday and got down to business, opening with “New Cannonball Rag.” The band and the crowd loosened up together as the first set progressed. There was an especially fortified, loping jam at the end of “Blue Star Woman” from 2017’s Barefoot in the Head. A powerful version of Hoyt Axton’s “Never Been To Spain” brought the first set to an end.
Second set picked up where the first left off. “Jump the Turnstile” featured MacDougall’s keyboard work front and center. “Meanwhile In The Gods,” from 2014’s Phosphorescent Harvest ended with a psychedelic, goosebump inducing jam led by Casal, before the song fed into a take on Bob Dylan’s “Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood).” The tones of “Narcissus Soaking Wet” start out otherworldly and travel outward from there, building into a powerful jam. The upbeat “Behold The Seer” closed out the second set, and a song that apparently debuted in 2018, “Relax Your Mind,” served as the encore.
Chris Robinson Brotherhood has the capacity to blow minds, and they do it in such a non-confrontational way that it’s hard to realize it’s even happening. They don’t rock a listener into submission, but coax their collective sound into a some sort of primordial groove that connects on a deep level, and before you know it, people are seriously getting down and smiling ear to ear. Revolution Hall was a total groove fest on Saturday night.
Sunday’s show had far fewer attendees, but those who made it out were excited to see just how far down the rabbit hole Chris Robinson Brotherhood would take them. The band opened with a song that debuted late last summer, “Comin’ Round The Mountain,” which Robinson tied back to the prior night by singing “relax your mind” a few times during the song. The set got cooking pretty quickly and just got hotter as it went, culminating in a big set-closing “Rosalee.”
After taking what Robinson described as a “Sunday-appropriate set break,” the band came out and opened the final set of the weekend with Leon Russell’s “Stranger In A Strange Land.” The second set included love songs (“She Shares My Blanket”), Grateful Dead-fueled anthems (“Vibration & Light Suite), driving tempos (“Shore Power”) and straight up swamp blues (Slim Harpo’s “I Got Love If You Want It”). Bob Dylan’s “Going to Acapulco” served as the encore. McDougall shone in the second set, driving through some exploratory keyboard segments. And just when you think Casal has reached a pinnacle, he somehow pours even more fuel on the fire and takes it up another notch.
The last time I covered Chris Robinson Brotherhood, I described them as a well-oiled machine. Now I think that may be a misnomer, because there’s nothing mechanical about it. It’s organic. Intuitive. It takes a brave musician to surrender to the song, to let the music play the musician. This group of has been playing together for long enough that they move as one, letting one moment shape the next, sometimes seeming as surprised as the audience at what they find around each twist and turn.
Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Revolution Hall, Portland, Oregon, 12/1/18
Set 1: New Cannonball Rag, Tomorrow Blues, Roan County Banjo, About A Stranger, Blue Star Woman, Let If Fall, Clear Blue Sky, Never Been To Spain (Hoyt Axton cover)
Set 2: Jump The Turnstile, Meanwhile In The Gods, Crash On The Levee (Down in the Flood) (Bob Dylan cover), Good To Know, Narcissus Soaking Wet, Saturday Night In Oak Grove, Louisiana (Tony Joe White cover), Burn Slow, Behold The Seer
Encore: Relax Your Mind
Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Revolution Hall, Portland, Oregon, 12/2/18
Set 1: Comin’ Round The Mountain, Oak Apple Day, Someday Past The Sunset, High Is Not The Top, Star Or Stone, The Chauffeur’s Daughter, Beggars Moon, Beware, Oh Take Care, Rosalee
Set 2: Stranger In A Strange Land (Leon Russell cover), Rare Birds, Vibration & Light Suite, Venus In Chrome, It Serves Me Right To Suffer (John Lee Hooker cover), She Shares My Blanket, Shore Power, I Got Love If You Want It (Slim Harpo cover)
Encore: Going To Acapulco (Bob Dylan cover)
One Response
The songs not called “relax your mind” it’s a called Oak Apple Day and features on Any way you love, we know how you feel. It’s a great song!