Chris Robinson Brotherhood at the Fillmore, December 11, 2015

the Fillmore presents an Evening with the Chris Robinson Brotherhood
2015-12-11
the Fillmore
805 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA .
9:00 PM, Friday, December 11, 2015

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[9:18 PM lights down]

1. [9:20 PM] Takin' Care of Business
2. [9:27 PM] Tomorrow Blues
3. [9:35 PM] Badlands Here We Come
4. [9:42 PM] Roan County Banjo
5. [9:49 PM] Oak Apple Day
6. [9:58 PM] 40 Days
7. [10:06 PM] (Last of the Old Time) Train Robbers
8. [10:15 PM] Poor Elijah / Tribute to Johnson
   [set ends 10:30 PM]

[11:06 PM lights down]

1. [11:07 PM] Stranger in a Strange Land
2. [11:12 PM] Ain't It Hard But Fair
   [NC swaps to the Doug Irwin “Wolf” guitar for the rest of the set]
3. [11:21 PM] One Hundred Days of Rain
4. [11:30 PM] West LA Fadeaway
5. [11:40 PM] Shore Power
6. [11:47 PM] Meanwhile in the Gods… »
7. [12:02 AM] Tulsa Yesterday
8. [12:16 AM] Rosalee
   [set ends 12:26 AM]
    
   Encore
   [Tony Leone switches to mandolin; Adam MacDougall switches to drums; Chris on acoustic guitar; Neil playing a black telecaster]
9. [12:30 AM] The Last Place That Love Lives
10. [12:36 AM] You Ain't Goin Nowhere
11. [12:40 AM] I Am a Pilgrim
    [show ends 12:45 AM]

Chris Robinson Brotherhood

• Neal Casal: guitar, harmony vox;
• Mark Dutton: bass, harmony vox;
• Adam MacDougall: keyboards, drums (encore), harmony vox;
• Chris Robinson: guitar, acoustic guitar (encore), lead vox;
• Tony Leone: mandolin (encore), drums.

Zipped over to SF in fairly light traffic for a Friday night to find a parking spot just as soon as I began looking. Gotta love it when the night begins like that! Walked a few blocks over to Fillmore, waited about 30 sec for the entry queue, then sauntered inside to claim a spot exactly where I wanted, dead center, about 20 or 30 feet back from the stage. Unfortunately, there were at least three NBA-qualified giants standing more or less right in front of me, but hey, you can't expect everything to go your way all of the time. And happily, during the next fifteen or twenty minutes of pre-show waiting, two of those towers edged outward from the center, leaving me a pretty decent view, with only a single man-mountain occluding my sightlines to the stage. As Ting was uninclined to suffer this situation, she did her best to worm up front, eventually claiming a spot just off the rail – all the better for her purpose, shooting pictures of the action, right?

The show kicked off with a high energy start in Takin' Care of Business, and continued that way with a romping take on Tomorrow Blues. It's good to realize that I'm starting to recognize a few CRB tunes by their opening notes – makes it that much easier to write a setlist! The rest of the set simmered along nicely, varying in mood, energy, and vigor according to tune until they got to the set closer, Poor Elijah, when they really busted for broke. You gotta love it when they blast through those country-gospel blues! More! More! More!

Set break afforded a good 30-minute chance to rest, and I was happy to have a dry seat tonight despite the many drinkers around me. The giant on my left, who'd alternated between smoking fatties and taking iPhone videos opted to sit awhile too, recognizing the utility of taking a load off the old bones. He offered to share a fat-fingered doobie while we sat, but seeing as how he allowed that it was zombie weed, I declined, stating my preference for a happier, bouncy buzz instead. “Ain't no couches here to crash out on,” I told him, to which he replied, “True, true,” then tucked the thigh bone away. And who should decide to pass out during the middle of the second set? My set break buddy. I guess he couldn't resist the temptation to get zombified. I assume he's OK … it caused a bit of a commotion when he crashed, but as far as I could tell, no Fillmore staff were summoned for assistance; hopefully all was well following some rest and hydration.

Opening the second set with Leon Russell's classic Stranger in a Strange Land was a great choice! Following the next tune, Neall took off his regular guitar, and surprise, surprise, surprise, a roadie came out carry the Doug Irwin “Wolf” guitar formerly owned and played by our dearly departed Jerry Garcia. Nice! I was pretty psyched to hear Neal wail on it, but it seemed to me that he took a few tunes to warm up to the instrument. Not that I'm complaining, or anything, but he seemed to approach the instrument gingerly or tentatively at first. Probably just getting used to different action or some other physical aspect of playing. It still sounded like Neal anyways – no surprise there! – and as the set progressed, he obviously relaxed into things. Playing Garcia's axe? No big deal mon!

Anyways, 100 Days of Rain was plenty fun, but West L.A. Fadeaway was decidedly un-funky. Clunky even. Not bad, but not nearly as much fun as I expected when I first heard the opening notes. Ah, well, you can't win 'em all. Anyways, the rest of the set was double plus good: one nearly seamless suite of fiery jamming.

Given the late ending for the set, I wasn't expecting more than a token encore, so it was another happy surprise when they regrouped to share an acoustic mini set to end the night. It was clear that something was up when Tony Leone climbed onstage carrying a mandolin. A few moments later, Adam MacDougall took a seat behind Tony's trap set, and with a nod from Chris, counted off the pace for The Last Place That Love Lives. Yay! Big props to the guys in the band for delivering a rocking good time tonight – I'm sure glad we made it!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!