Amidst the disaster for the Australian festival scene of the cancellation of Bluesfest, other promoters have picked up the slack to ensure that some of the touring artists for Bluesfest could still come down to Australia. Notably, Live Nation took over the tour of southern rockers The Black Crowes as they returned to the Enmore Theatre for their first Sydney shows since 2022. 

To kick off the night, the audience were treated to a set by the Southern River Band, who embodied everything about gritty Australian rock that one would want at a show like this and they were the perfect, well-chosen opener for The Black Crowes, fitting in stylistically with an Aussie twist. There’s no doubt they’ll continue to do well as their reach grows.

The Black Crowes are known for varying up the starts of their sets, and this was no exception, as they started with the rocking “Bedside Manners”, before moving into the live debut of “Do the Parasite” from their new album A Pound of Feathers. 

“Are you guys asleep we have a f***ing new record out,” said frontman Chris Robinson. “But we’re only going to play one song from it.”

The band felt very tight from the outset, showing incredible musicianship and live dynamism, as Robinson showed a great presence as he bounced around the stage with high-octane, gritty vocals. 

“Welcome to the old Wednesday night rock’n’roll show,” said Robinson. 

At times, it felt like Robinson was a little bit frustrated that he didn’t receive the same energy back from the audience as the venue was not quite filled to the brim, but as the show was only announced a few weeks ago as a last-minute fill in for The Marcus King Band, who couldn’t make it down because of the Bluesfest cancellation, the band still did a great job of selling most of the seats and standing area out in spite of the short lead time. While crowd engagement went in and out, the band continued with their esoteric choice of songs, with the booming “Sting Me” followed up by some more slower tracks like “Sister Moonlight” and “Ballad in Urgency”, which showed off Robinson’s voice and the band’s cohesion as an entity.

The energy really picked up when the band moved into their more piano-driven rock’n’roll with “Stare It Cold” being a highlight before the band played some of their biggest hits, with a rocking cover of “Hard to Handle” having the whole audience singing along and jumping up and down as the band ran riot on the stage, bringing their raw rock stylings to the fore. Interestingly, the band opted for a complete change of pace after this, with guitarist Rich Robinson taking the lead on “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’”, showing off a very pretty and melodic voice that stood in complete contrast to the raspy rock vocals of his brother Chris. It was actually a very pleasant and well regarded change, with the cover resonating well with the audience.

This gave Chris a bit of time to get his voice back before launching into the classic “She Talks to Angels”, which was performed with soul, passion and emotion and really connected with everyone in the crowd. The band stayed true to their hits for the rest of the set, with “Thorn in My Pride” and “Remedy” garnering a good level of singing along from the crowd before they closed out the night with a cover of “Silver Train” by The Rolling Stones.

Overall, this was a great show, which showed just what Australia will miss with the collapse of Bluesfest as we don’t really get rock like this too often so when we do it is a real treat to see. The band were in fine form, showing some of their best material and performing with dynamism and excitement in spite of some ebbs and flows from the crowd, as was perhaps inevitable given the last minute nature of the gig (noting that the rest of their tour is near-sold-out and this was just a quirk of the scheduling in this case). Ultimately, it was great that The Black Crowes could come and share their music with even more Australian fans to fill some of the gaps left by Bluesfest, and with or without the festival, there’s no doubt they’ll be back soon. 

Rating: ★★★★1/2

The Black Crowes – Enmore Theatre – 8 April 2026 

All photo credits: Jif Morrison/Enmore Theatre