The Allman Brothers Band loves playing in New York and they're happy to tell the crowd that. You may be skeptical of a "hello Cleveland!" declaration like that, but judging by their schedule they are sincere. Last night was the first of fourteen they will play at the Beacon Theater and I was there. I've always been a fan of the Allman Brothers. Their songs are as deep as you want them to be - pleasant, rockin' background music or great musicians jumping from bluesy riffs to jazz experiments.
But am I an $85 a seat Allman fan? You're probably more likely to find me listening to Clutch for my southern rock fix, but with my fiance on the media side, tickets to events sometimes come our way, so the choice was easy.
I don't know which side started the love-fest (they've been doing extended stays at the Beacon for 16 years), but it was obvious the crowd loved them, and they seemed to be having a good time too. They played their hits really well, they still have their voices and they didn't lose me on the jams. It seemed they knew exactly when to stop messing around and spacing out too much, bring it back and keep the crowd in it. They were extremely tight where they needed to be and as wide open when they wanted to be. The Beacon is an excellent venue to see a band like that, and a 10 minute drum solo in the middle of "Elizabeth Reed" was a perfect opportunity to walk around the halls and lobby to see what a nice building it is too.
Most impressive for me was lead guitarist, Derek Trucks, 26 (nephew of original drummer Butch Trucks). The story is that Derek has jammed with the band since he was 11 years old and was recently brought in officially when the band got tired of Dicky Betts' partying and gave him the heave-ho. Trucks has enough blues and rock sensibility to fit in with the band but was able to add some tasty flair of his own. He has the technical and speed ability too but he only only used it where it fit in best. The slide work was great too.
During the intermission the screen played some video of a 50's era performance of some old blues. I wish i could tell you who it was (I didn't hear the name the few time they said it) because the guy featured in the video then came out and played a couple of blues standards with them. You could tell the old guy really didn't have his chops up to his prime days, but the band filled in the gaps and the crowd loved it.
Throughout the show the screen behind them played kaleidoscope images of mushrooms and other psychedelic freak-out images. I'm not sure if the band is still into that lifestyle (this is year 37 for them) or if it was for the benefit of some of the younger fans that may have been partaking.
The Allman Brothers may get overlooked as mere hippy music (as I'm happy to overlook some of the music coming out of the jam-band scene), but I'm glad I got to see them. It was easy to forget that four of the six of these guys are around 60. Maybe next year I'll buck-up for the ticket (or ask my wife to ask around for a comp one again).
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I've seen them a couple of times, too and they really put on a good show. I bought my tickets, though.