Friday, 12 March 2010
Allman Brothers Band United Palace Theatre New York 11 March 2010
This is the way it was supposed to go.
Some time after eleven a.m. we'd crank up the volume as the ABB worked their way through the set-list for the first night of the UP run, and since some documentation would be required, Hughesy set down the note pad on the living room table, planning on writing the set-list and assorted random observations on the show.
Along the course of the next three hours or so we'd have the odd visitor drop by, maybe partake in a beverage or two and chill out enjoying the midday sun and the combination of what was there on the big screen and the view through the living room window.
Of course, it didn't work out that way, and when it didn’t I found myself scribbling three and a bit pages of notes since I needed something to while away the time while I waited to see what transpired.
The following is (more or less) what was scribbled on those pages...
Note: due to time differences, the times below are Eastern Australian Standard (not Daylight Saving) time.
11:18 Sound cutting in and out through various tracks being played over the PA. Sounds like some John Lee Hooker, some saxy blues. It appears we have sound issues though the feed sees to be gradually coming through on a more consistent basis. It still cuts out for significant periods, but it seems to be improving...
11:21 Background hum of audience as sound cuts out again.
11:24 Looks like Here we go as the sound promptly cuts out.
11:25 ABB logo viewed from Gregg's side; organ and piano notes; almost ready; sound drops out.
11;26 Camera's in front now and we're live through the dropouts. Frozen screen. No idea what we're getting.
Little bits of sound, no continuity and some of the picture ain't all it could be. Could it be Don't Keep Me Wonderin'?
11:32 Gone completely. Just a stage picture which gives no indication what's going on. Passing visit by the Barra, who heads off when it's obvious that not much is happening.
11:41 Nothing. The same frozen image.
11:44 Having logged out and gone back in again we're back live (on and off)
11:50 Warbo arrived. Sound and picture continuity doesn't.
11:52 Back live and immediate dropout. Chat with Warbo about various other matters since we can't chat about the music.
12:00 Warbo departs, and so does the sound as I suspect that there's a guest in the offing (but there ain't).
12:03 Desdemona is the first track in half an hour that's recognisable.
The worst part of all this is that the bits you do catch are good enough to remind you of what you're missing and last just long enough to get you in before it drops out again, Derek working into full flight but then gone, back into a building solo though the cut-outs don't give the continuity and development you'd expect to find as the solo builds.
12:09 Warren into the solo action (and right out again).
12:12 Back into the Gregg vocal.
12:15 Every Hungry Woman (about five seconds) Woman at the break of day. It almost seems like little slightly out-of-sequence bundles of data are finding their way through.
12:23 Every Hungry Woman finishing.
12:24 And It Stoned Me? (About two seconds. Half a...). Yep, that's it as we get half a line.
And another half a line.
12:29 With the offer of a ham sandwich I open a bottle of Sparkling Cienna on the basis that I need the fridge space. It's not as if we've got much to celebrate.
12:39 After ten minutes looking at a still of Warren's Les Paul I'm bored. Logging out and back in suggests that they've moved on to what might have been Les Brers, but turns out to be Kind Of Bird.
12:43 End of first set.
1:04 Even with the minimum picture on screen (quit out of full screen mode to see if it made a difference) featuring advertising material for merchandise and Hittin' The Note) the sound cuts out. Pity, because I like the old Fleetwood Mac Rattlesnake Shake (seems like a live version).
1:06 Having checked my email during the break, it's obvious I'm not the only one experiencing an interrupted feed. Strangely, I don't find that overly reassuring. In a way I'd prefer to think the problem is related to where you are, and the inadequacy of local telecommunication infrastructure.
If that's the case, having taken a punt on the Moogis subscription, you can more or less shrug your shoulders and try to make the best of it. Once you find out that Stateside subscribers are having some of the same issues it doesn't, for some reason, make you feel all that much better.
1:15 With the start of the second set imminent, sounds like we're going acoustic. Gregg on acoustic for Melissa but the dropouts continue. An optimist might think that the delivery of sound and image is becoming more consistent. Of course, when I start to write that it drops out again, and when I start referring to it dropping out, there it is again. Sort of sonic now you see it, now you don't.
1:22 Melissa finishes. Screen freezes. When do the guests start turning up?
1:23 I think it's Please Call Home, though it's hard to tell and it's soon obvious that it isn't.
1:25 Coming through more consistently, but as soon as I start to write that, she's gone again.
1:28 Into Come & Go Blues. Kind of appropriate under the circumstances.
1:31 And as time goes on there are less and less ways to talk about what's (largely not) happening. The snippets that come through are make you really narky about the bits that are missing. If what you're seeing was 100% crap, you'd be inclined to turn it off, but when it comes through clear as a bell for a few seconds and then disappears, that’s a different kettle of fish...
1:35 There are those random out of sync blocs of data again. Pity. Looks like nice interaction between Warren and Oteil.
1:37 They're into Rocking Horse.
1:39 Almost twenty uninterrupted seconds of Rocking Horse.
1:41 Cuts out just as Derek's solo is getting interesting (twice).
1:42 Sounds like the start of Liz Reed but it's hard to tell as the sound drops out.
1:44 No, it's something else though the previous comment still applies.
1:45 Derek starts to soar and guess what happens.
1:48 Actually, it's still Rocking Horse...
1:49 Into Black Hearted Woman, though I'm called away to attend to the clothes line due to a sudden squall of rain.
1:57 Into Oteil's solo.
1:59 Butch on the timpani (frozen).
2:00 Second set streaming is a significant improvement. Still too many drop outs, but definitely better than the first half, delivering bursts of co-ordinated sound and vision lasting up to 15 seconds!
2:06 Black Hearted Woman surges into The Other One play-out as the sound surges in and out. Really frustrating since the intermittent sonic evidence suggests a band firing on all cylinders.
2:11 Black Hearted Woman ends. Straight into Jessica, which is getting more than its fair share of random packet syndrome before the feed cuts in and out around 2:13. From there, things get better, though the dropouts continue and the sound and vision don't always match up.
2:25 Out of Jessica, presumably into the encore break. Still no guests.
2:28 Stage lights down. Is that it?
2:30 Nope. Here's the encore. Preachin' Blues, or at least that's what it sounds like. Sure is...
2:35 One Way Out. This is getting closer to what I expected to be writing down.
2:40 Gregg: Thank you very much. See you tomorrow night. Little Martha over the PA. Yep, that seems to be it.
Now, for the actual set-list as posted on the mailing list:
Don't Keep Me Wonderin'
Hot 'Lanta
Statesboro Blues
That's What Love Can Do
No One Left To Run With
Desdemona
Every Hungry Woman
And It Stoned Me
Kind of Bird
Set 2
Melissa
Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City
Come & Go Blues
Rocking Horse (with Little Martha tease)
Black Hearted Woman > Bass > Drums
Jessica
Encore
Preachin' Blues (Warren and Derek)
One Way Out
Now, anyone who had read this far might be inclined to wonder why I've bothered. After all, it wasn't the most inspiring of experiences. There is, however, the chance that this might be my one and only chance to experience an Allman Brothers Band concert in more or less real time, and I intend to watch every one of the seven remaining concerts on line from beginning to end come hell or high water.
For a start, today's experience, regardless of the disappointment, has used less than 1% of my monthly download limit, so it's not as if I'm looking at running out over the next seven shows, and once the shows are archived, I can watch them as many times as I want.
No, I want the buzz of being there on line when, hopefully, Warren or Gregg says Please welcome to the stage...
Of course, that's coming from someone who lives in a small town two hundred kilometres from a major centre whose live concert experiences over the past decade have been single shows by Bob Brozman & Jeff Lang, Richard Thompson, Eric Clapton (with Derek), Elvis Costello and Ry Cooder with Nick Lowe.
No, we'll be making the best of what we can get....
