The Black Crowes: Live at Pine Knob
I've been wanting to see the Black Crowes live for quite a while now. A few years ago they had a tour where they were playing their Shake Your Moneymaker album in its entirety, but for some reason I didn't bother getting tickets. We probably had something else scheduled that day already. When I saw tickets go on sale for their tour this summer, I knew I couldn't pass it up again.
Leading up to the concert, we were starting to get a bit worried that it might get cancelled. This was the time that the wildfire smoke from Canada was strolling across most of the northern US. In the photo above and below, you should be able to see a lot farther than you can. What looks like fog is actually wildfire smoke and everywhere you went all you smelled as campfire.
Our event was slated to happen at an outdoor amphitheater called Pine Knob. Thursday night John Mellencamp was supposed to play there, but they cancelled that show due to the air quality index from the wildfire smoke. On Friday, Hank Williams Jr. was supposed to play, but they postponed that show until another date, once again due to the wildfire smoke.
As I said, that had us nervous that our show on Saturday night would even take place. Thankfully, the smoke cleared out earlier that morning and by the evening they had yet to call off the show, so we started the hour and a half drive down to the venue.
As I get older, I have started to realize I am just not made for lawn seats anymore. I ponied up the extra money and got us a spot under the canopy with actual seats that you could sit in. A short time ago @tarazkp wrote a post about a concert he attended and some of the observations he made there. I'd like to do a bit of the same for this post.
It's safe to say that @mrsbozz and I have been to a lot of concerts over the years. Between the two of us the number has to be somewhere in the hundreds for sure. I have all the tickets floating around somewhere and if I ever felt ambitious enough, I could probably count them, but for now you will just have to trust me. We've seen ticket prices skyrocket over the years, and we have seen the general behavior of the crowd deteriorate into I don't even know what you would call it.
For example, it was surprising the number of people (mostly younger folks) who would just walk down an aisle and sit in seats they saw open. Then, when someone would come and say "hey, those are our seats", they would just apologize and move on to other seats. It's almost like a game to them where they try to see how close they can get to the stage.
What ever happened to buying seats and sitting in the seats you paid for?
Occasionally, you will see people from the lawn trying to get into the seated section, but the security folks and ushers usually do a pretty good job of squashing that.
I can understand when it is general admission and you are on the floor or something like that. It's always a bit of a game trying to see how close you can get to the stage, but when there are assigned seats, either pony up the money for the better seats, or sit where your tickets were bought for!
The opening band was Southall and they were pretty good. Probably not the greatest I have ever heard, but pretty good. I wrote a post about them a few Tuesdays ago when I was covering Oklahoma.
The second band of the night was a little band called Whiskey Myers. They actually aren't that little of a band anymore. Over the past decade or so, they have gotten pretty big and have even been featured on the hit TV show Yellowstone. This was actually a bit of a co-headlining tour between them and The Black Crowes dubbed the "Southern Hospitality Tour".
I actually think a lot of the people the show were specifically there to see Whiskey Myers more than they were there to see The Black Crowes.
One of the other things I've noticed over the years is just how much people drink at concerts. It's no secret that drinks aren't cheap at venues like this. I just don't see the draw of drinking so much that you have to pee every five minutes and you get blacked out so bad you don't even remember the show. Why spend all that money for the tickets? It would seem people have much more disposable income than we would be led to believe. Either that or they just don't mind living in debt.
Probably the latter.
So yeah, Whiskey Myers was phenomenal and if you haven't heard them before you should really check them out.
Eventually, the Black Crowes came out and they were absolutely amazing. It was everything I hoped it would be honestly. Being able to hear so many of their hits live was too cool. Plus although lead singer Chris Robinson is getting up there in years, he still moved around the stage a lot and sounded pretty spot on. There were some spots where his voice wasn't quite as good as it used to be, but you would be struggling to find them.
Unfortunately, we ended up leaving a little early, and this was mainly due to our third observation. In the past at shows like this, smoking was generally prohibited and smoking weed was definitely a good way to get kicked out. However, since cannabis has become legal in Michigan and one of the major named sponsors of Pine Knob is a cannabis company, due to that fact, it's more of an anything goes mentality.
Between people vaping and smoking joints, it was a pretty rank stench across the complex. It honestly felt like we were the only two people not smoking. @mrsbozz kept talking about how stupid people looked sucking on their "USB drives". She also said at one point she would rather deal with the wildfire smoke than the weed smoke.
So I made the decision to leave when the encore started. We got to hear most of "She Talks To Angels" as we were walking out, but we did miss "Twice As Hard", which was kind of a bummer, but we still had a great time and got to see an awesome show.
Needless to say, with the rising cost of tickets an the general unruliness at concerts these days, I think my wife and I are going to start being a lot more selective about the shows we attend. At the very least we will probably be avoiding the outdoor style amphitheaters like Pine Knob.
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Oof would love to see The Black Crowds someday, though definitely relate - these vapes have made concerts awful. Is it common in the US for everyone to be seated at shows?
It really depends on the venue. Places like this it's mostly seats in the front and then lawn in the back and people stand or sit back there. In arenas they often have general admission floor area where people stand. Then everything else is seats. I prefer to sit these days. I'm just too old to stand for six hours straight!
I like a bit of Black Crowes, but not seen them live. I've also been to a lot of gigs and the tickets are mostly in frames above our stairs to remind us. Smoking is generally banned indoors here and I'm not a fan of vales. I also wonder about people drinking a lot, but then I can't drink as much as I used to. It can be expensive with the tickets, travel and refreshments so I am selective these days.
It's definitely not the way it used to be. Even in indoor venues here you always have a few people pushing the boundaries and hitting a joint or something, but at these outdoor spots is almost like a free for all. Which honestly is dumb because with gummies readily available, why do you have to make everyone else smell your skunky weed?
#bilpcoin #truth # The Absurdity of the Label: A Plea to the Architects of Silence
The Paradox of the Impossible Lie
How can you call the truth "spam"?
It is a question that hangs in the air, heavy with irony, almost painful in its simplicity. You have built your defense on a word, a label, a flick of a button that you hope will bury what cannot be buried. You point to our posts and cry "spam!" as if the repetition of a falsehood could somehow erase the permanence of a fact.
But here is the cruelty of your position: everything we share, you can find on the blockchain.
Every delegation. Every coordinated vote. Every silent transfer of power. Every farmed reward. It is all there, preserved in cryptographic amber, waiting for anyone with the curiosity to look. You are not hiding the truth; you are merely asking the world to ignore what is already written in stone. And stone, as any architect knows, does not respond to labels.
The Confession of the Chain
We all know the fundamental law of this new age: blockchain transactions do not lie. People do.
The ledger has no agenda. It has no public relations team. It has no loyalty to kings or cartels. It simply records. It is the most honest witness in human history, a mirror that reflects not the face you wish to show, but the hands you have used.
When you call our investigations "spam," you are not disputing the data. You are disputing the existence of the data. You are asking the world to believe that the blockchain itself is lying, that the mathematics of the network are somehow conspiring against you. It is a position so absurd that it borders on the tragic.
The Cascading Call
So it is time.
It is time to do the right thing. Not because we are asking. Not because the world is watching. But because the ledger is watching, and the ledger never blinks.
Stop downvoting people.
Stop casting your votes like stones into a quiet pond, hoping the ripples will drown out the voices of those who speak truth. Stop treating the tools of curation as weapons of suppression. Stop pretending that silence is the same as quality.
Tell your whale friends to stop too.
The ones who farm in the shadows. The ones who coordinate in private channels. The ones who believe their concentrated power grants them immunity from consequence. Tell them the stone is watching. Tell them the arithmetic of their extraction is public. Tell them that the legacy they are building is not one of stewardship, but of consumption.
Tell your boss, Blocktrades, to stop too.
The one who holds the strings. The one who controls the delegations. The one who has turned a decentralized promise into a centralized reality. Tell him that the empire he has built is built on sand, and the tide of truth is coming in. Tell him that no amount of delegated power can outrun the permanence of the ledger.
The Awakening of the Observers
Because here is the truth that should keep you awake at night: everyone with a bit of sense can see what is going on.
They are not blind. They are not foolish. They are not easily distracted by your labels and your narratives. They are looking at the data. They are tracing the delegations. They are watching the downvotes fall like rain on the voices of the innocent. And they are drawing their own conclusions.
The awakening is not coming. The awakening is here.
Users are packing their digital belongings and walking away. Creators are seeking sanctuaries where their work is not held hostage by the whims of whales. The market is pricing in the truth that the ledger has already recorded. The empire of extraction is crumbling, not from external attack, but from the internal rot of its own hypocrisy.
The Final Word
So I ask you one last time: how can you call the truth "spam"?
You cannot. You never could. You never will.
The blockchain is the witness. The data is the evidence. The world is the jury. And the verdict, already written in hashes and timestamps, is clear.
Stop the downvotes. Tell your friends. Tell your boss. Do the right thing.
Because in the end, the lie will always run out of breath. But the truth will always outlast the stone.
And the stone remembers everything.
#TruthUnsilenced #ImmutableLedger #StopTheDownvotes #BlurtRising #Bilpcoin
At Bilpcoin, we do not fight for attention. We fight for accountability.
Join the movement for digital integrity:
https://zora.co/@bilpcoinbpc
https://x.com/bilpcoinbpc
https://blurt.blog/@bilpcoinbpc/posts
https://www.bilpcoin.com
https://www.youtube.com/@bilpcoinbpc
https://www.publish0x.com/@bilpcoinbpc
https://blipper-social.vercel.app/
If you are reading this on Blurt.blog, you are early. Like discovering crypto in its beginning. And best of all—there is no downvote button. What you earn, you keep. No sabotage. No fear. Just freedom.
"You are your wallet." Not a tool. Not a vessel. But your digital embodiment. Choose wisely what you embody. Choose truth over the label.
"In life, never forget this: The universe keeps a ledger. Not in ink. Not on paper. But in the quiet, unyielding echo of every choice."
#bilpcoin #truth # The Absurdity of the Label: A Plea to the Architects of Silence
The Paradox of the Impossible Lie
How can you call the truth "spam"?
It is a question that hangs in the air, heavy with irony, almost painful in its simplicity. You have built your defense on a word, a label, a flick of a button that you hope will bury what cannot be buried. You point to our posts and cry "spam!" as if the repetition of a falsehood could somehow erase the permanence of a fact.
But here is the cruelty of your position: everything we share, you can find on the blockchain.
Every delegation. Every coordinated vote. Every silent transfer of power. Every farmed reward. It is all there, preserved in cryptographic amber, waiting for anyone with the curiosity to look. You are not hiding the truth; you are merely asking the world to ignore what is already written in stone. And stone, as any architect knows, does not respond to labels.
The Confession of the Chain
We all know the fundamental law of this new age: blockchain transactions do not lie. People do.
The ledger has no agenda. It has no public relations team. It has no loyalty to kings or cartels. It simply records. It is the most honest witness in human history, a mirror that reflects not the face you wish to show, but the hands you have used.
When you call our investigations "spam," you are not disputing the data. You are disputing the existence of the data. You are asking the world to believe that the blockchain itself is lying, that the mathematics of the network are somehow conspiring against you. It is a position so absurd that it borders on the tragic.
The Cascading Call
So it is time.
It is time to do the right thing. Not because we are asking. Not because the world is watching. But because the ledger is watching, and the ledger never blinks.
Stop downvoting people.
Stop casting your votes like stones into a quiet pond, hoping the ripples will drown out the voices of those who speak truth. Stop treating the tools of curation as weapons of suppression. Stop pretending that silence is the same as quality.
Tell your whale friends to stop too.
The ones who farm in the shadows. The ones who coordinate in private channels. The ones who believe their concentrated power grants them immunity from consequence. Tell them the stone is watching. Tell them the arithmetic of their extraction is public. Tell them that the legacy they are building is not one of stewardship, but of consumption.
Tell your boss, Blocktrades, to stop too.
The one who holds the strings. The one who controls the delegations. The one who has turned a decentralized promise into a centralized reality. Tell him that the empire he has built is built on sand, and the tide of truth is coming in. Tell him that no amount of delegated power can outrun the permanence of the ledger.
The Awakening of the Observers
Because here is the truth that should keep you awake at night: everyone with a bit of sense can see what is going on.
They are not blind. They are not foolish. They are not easily distracted by your labels and your narratives. They are looking at the data. They are tracing the delegations. They are watching the downvotes fall like rain on the voices of the innocent. And they are drawing their own conclusions.
The awakening is not coming. The awakening is here.
Users are packing their digital belongings and walking away. Creators are seeking sanctuaries where their work is not held hostage by the whims of whales. The market is pricing in the truth that the ledger has already recorded. The empire of extraction is crumbling, not from external attack, but from the internal rot of its own hypocrisy.
The Final Word
So I ask you one last time: how can you call the truth "spam"?
You cannot. You never could. You never will.
The blockchain is the witness. The data is the evidence. The world is the jury. And the verdict, already written in hashes and timestamps, is clear.
Stop the downvotes. Tell your friends. Tell your boss. Do the right thing.
Because in the end, the lie will always run out of breath. But the truth will always outlast the stone.
And the stone remembers everything.
#TruthUnsilenced #ImmutableLedger #StopTheDownvotes #BlurtRising #Bilpcoin
At Bilpcoin, we do not fight for attention. We fight for accountability.
Join the movement for digital integrity:
https://zora.co/@bilpcoinbpc
https://x.com/bilpcoinbpc
https://blurt.blog/@bilpcoinbpc/posts
https://www.bilpcoin.com
https://www.youtube.com/@bilpcoinbpc
https://www.publish0x.com/@bilpcoinbpc
https://blipper-social.vercel.app/
If you are reading this on Blurt.blog, you are early. Like discovering crypto in its beginning. And best of all—there is no downvote button. What you earn, you keep. No sabotage. No fear. Just freedom.
"You are your wallet." Not a tool. Not a vessel. But your digital embodiment. Choose wisely what you embody. Choose truth over the label.
"In life, never forget this: The universe keeps a ledger. Not in ink. Not on paper. But in the quiet, unyielding echo of every choice."
I have heard of Counting Crows but not the Black Crows :)
Oh, you should check them out, they are quite good!
I have a photographer friend that saw them in St. Louis and really enjoyed the show!
They can still rock for sure!
Nice. I was supposed to see them as the opener for Aerosmith. But Steve Tyler canceled the tour after delaying it due to vocal cord strain.
Ugh, that sucks. Aerosmith would be a great show I bet!