The Black Crowes: Happiness Bastards Tour (The Reprise)

The Black Crowes: Happiness Bastards Tour (The Reprise) at St. Augustine Amphitheatre

The Black Crowes echo classic rock without imitating their influences — they don’t replicate the insistent swagger of the Rolling Stones, the drunken boogie of the Faces, or the funky chug of the Grateful Dead so much as give the resulting brew their own flavors. The interplay between the brothers Robinson, vocalist Chris and guitarist Rich, gives the band some extra tension and they play with a fiery tightness their heroes often didn’t. They hit the ground running with their first two albums — 1990’s Shake Your Money Maker, with its revved-up cover of the Otis Redding song “Hard to Handle,” and 1992’s The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion — scaling the upper reaches of the charts. As the years rolled on, the group loosened up a bit and embraced the jammier side of the classic rock equation, before splitting (for the first time) in 2002. They would continue to regroup and breakup over the years, playing reunion shows and making albums, including 2008’s politically charged Warpaint. After half-a-decade of not speaking, they patched things up in 2020, releasing the covers EP 1972, touring, and curating reissues of their early albums. In 2024, they returned with their first studio album in 15 years, the swagging hard rock throwback Happiness Bastards.