Live at the Greek

Disc 1
1	Celebration Day / The Black Crowes 3:42
2	Custard Pie / The Black Crowes 5:18
3	Sick Again / The Black Crowes 4:34
4	What Is and What Should Never Be / The Black Crowes 5:26
5	Woke up This Morning / The Black Crowes 4:14
6	Shape of Things to Come / The Black Crowes 3:09
7	Sloppy Drunk / The Black Crowes 6:05
8	Ten Years Gone / The Black Crowes 6:30
9	In My Time of Dying / The Black Crowes 9:33
10	Your Time Is Gonna Come / The Black Crowes 6:02
Disc 2
1	The Lemon Song / The Black Crowes 8:59
2	Nobody's Fault But Mine / The Black Crowes 6:41
3	Heartbreaker / The Black Crowes 5:50
4	Hey Hey What Can I Do / The Black Crowes 3:30
5	Mellow Down Easy / The Black Crowes 5:20
6	Oh Well / The Black Crowes 4:10
7	Shake Your Moneymaker / The Black Crowes 4:25
8	You Shook Me / The Black Crowes 8:25
9	Out on the Tiles / The Black Crowes 3:39
10	Whole Lotta Love / The Black Crowes 5:34

Barnes & Noble

Often, combinations that sound great on paper end up falling woefully short in practice. Not so with this double-disc set, recorded early on in the collaborative life of this cross-generational rock juggernaut. Live at the Greek readily lives up to the advance hype. Page and the Crowes mesh mesmerizingly on a wide array of tracks from the guitarist's Zeppelin days -- most of which see Chris Robinson splitting the difference between his own unique vocal style and a more wailing, Robert Plant-styled approach -- as well as a passel of blues chestnuts. Thankfully, none of the musicians treat the Zep tunes as sacrosanct, reworking such tunes as "The Lemon Song" (stretched to nine minutes via a pair of slow-burn breakdowns) and "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" (which gains a pastoral vibe from acoustic guitars and chiming mandolin) in much the same way Page's contemporaries revamped the music they grew up on. To that end, the combo slinks through classics such as Elmore James's "Shake Your Money Maker" and Jimmy Rogers's "Sloppy Drunk" with a blend of sultriness and threat -- exactly what the music calls for. Beefed up considerably from its initial Internet-only release, Live at the Greek adds one new song -- a version of Willie Dixon's "Mellow Down Easy" -- and plenty of video footage taken from the show and from backstage sources. David Sprague

All Music Guide

The Black Crowes were dogged with comparisons to the Rolling Stones and the Faces throughout the first decade of their career, so it came as a mild surprise that they teamed with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in late 1999 for a couple of concerts. Zeppelin had a mystique and majesty about them that the Crowes never attempted to emulate. They were an earthy, bluesy rock band and while they found a number of different ways to rework their influences, they never tried the stately grandeur that was Zeppelin's second nature. So, some observers were curious to see how these two approaches worked. Well, it worked very, very well indeed. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that it was a good, comfortable fit since Page always demonstrated a true love of blues and early rock & roll, even on Led Zep's heaviest moments. What may be a surprise, at least to listeners that always dismissed the Black Crowes as revivalist hacks, is how supple and muscular the band sounds on Live at the Greek and how powerful vocalist Chris Robinson is. The double-disc album, released originally only through the internet but then through retail on TVT, essentially replicates an entire concert from Page and the Crowes, one of the first before they set out on a full-length American tour in the summer of 2000. They stick to Led Zeppelin classics and old blues and R&B standards like "Woke up This Morning," "Sloppy Drunk," "Mellow Down Easy," and "Shake Your Money Maker," plus the Yardbirds' "Shape of Things to Come" and Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well." No Crowes songs are here due to contractual reasons - the band left American/Columbia in 1999, and they were not allowed to recut any song they released on the label in the years immediately following their departure; but in a way, that only strengthens the album. By pounding out hard-driving blues-rock and classic Zeppelin tunes, the band is able to stretch out and reveal just what a capable, versatile band they are. The true sign of their abilities is that Page sounds looser and happier here than he has in years; he sounds like he's truly enjoying himself, a quality that is debatable on the Page & Plant records, no matter what their virtues are. Live at the Greek isn't a landmark release, and only hardcore Page, Black Crowes, and Zeppelin fans are likely to want this, no matter how vibrant and lucent these faithful interpretations are. But for those fans, they'll be quite pleased with how good, how strong Live at the Greek is. Stephen Thomas Erlewine