Saturday, 13 March 2010

Allman Brothers Band United Palace Theatre New York 12 March 2010

Note: due to time differences, the times below are Eastern Australian Standard (not Daylight Saving) time.

8:30 Turn on the laptop, log in and head across to the live feed where I've been told they're currently streaming last night's show. Sounds fine to me, and looks fine as I finish the log in and find myself watching the The Other One play-out from Black Hearted Woman. Amazing improvement on yesterday's feed, so it'll be interesting to see how things pan out over the next few hours.

8:32 First dropout for the day. I've obviously spoken too soon.

8:45 After twelve and a bit minutes of the same image of Marc Quinones on the screen, log out, switch the laptop to sleep mode and concentrate on the Texas Chilli sausages from the butcher on the corner that're the Saturday morning breakfast staple.

9:11 With breakfast out of the way, wake up the MacBook, log in and try again. Feed is back live into Statesboro Blues, so I'm assuming they've finished one replay of last night's show and are running through it again. Makes sense to me. If they can get a stable feed going and keep it running while increasing numbers log in, things might just work out.

Again, if what's on screen right now had been there last night no one would've been complaining.

9:15 Into That's What Love Can Do, and everything's fine.

9:20 No One Left To Run With.

It's obvious from email commentary on the Allman mailing list that there are a lot of dissatisfied customers out there. A lot of dissatisfied customers is probably putting it mildly.

A couple of messages from people on the tech side of Moogis haven't been encouraging, falling more or less into we had the problem fixed into the second set, so if there were still issues there it's a problem at your end territory.

On the other hand, the two messages I've seen from Butch Trucks (one of them direct into my mailbox, thanks Butch) suggest a genuine commitment to getting things fixed. He's obviously invested a lot of time, effort and his own money into this, so I hope it works out for him.

Now, I've got no idea about the technological ins and outs of this stuff. As I remarked to Warbo yesterday as the feed kept cutting in and out, when you look at millions and millions of packages of data bouncing around the internet every second, it's amazing how much of it gets through...

9:30 Feed is still OK as they get set for the next number, which I already know is Desdemona. That's the best part of twenty minutes without a hitch. On past form, having noted that, it should be due to cut out about now. Let's see....

9:36 Some pixellation during Derek's solo but the feed's still going strong. With a page of notes and the possibility of a number of visitors over the next few hours I'm inclined to type up what I've got without any further ado (or any further adon't). Having started out on this time: comment approach I'm inclined to keep it going through the whole run, hopefully with less and less non-musical content to comment on....

10:03 After trouble-free runs through Every Hungry Woman and And It Stoned Me, the feed was into Kind of Bird when Madam arrived back from Tai Chi.

Foolishly, I remark how well things are going. Really, I should know better, as the feed immediately stops.

Log out, log back in and try again...

10:08 Webcast window on screen. Nothing (apart from the spinning hang on while we load this wheel....

10:15 Log out, give it a break, try again in a few minutes...

10:54 Having tried both browsers, downloaded and installed the latest Adobe Flash Player, followed the tech tips that turned up in an email message (thanks, John Curatolo) the failure to get anything on screen is worrying, particularly as it's a good fifty minutes since the very good up to that point feed cut out....

10:59 Blast of soulful sound as the previously blank screen changes to the (due to yesterday's problems) all-too-familiar 'shroom backdrop. Sounds good too. Now it's a case of wait and see...

11:06 Camera pans left/right, cut in Doug Sahm on the PA.

11:07 Good to hear Little Feat's Rocket In My Pocket over the PA. Hopefully tonight's show will deliver just that....

11:10 Bloke from the local council decides to mow the median strip in the street outside, which means I need to turn up the volume. Taj Mahal She Caught The Katy on the PA. Someone's got taste.

There's nothing like the smell of wet, freshly-mown grass.

11:17 Burst of drums and assorted setting up type noises over the nice jazzy groove on the PA. At least I assume they're over the music on the PA.

11:19 Drum rolls, bangs and thumps.

11:22 Steve Earle The Revolution Starts Now unfortunately contains the words starts and now, which may not be the most appropriate words in this uncertain environment.

Impatience is a terrible thing. At least if I was in the theatre I'd know I was going to see the show. Pace restlessly around the room, scan horizon for potential visitors. Fortunately I stopped chewing fingernails a good forty-something years ago...

11:25 PA Fades. Crowd noise. House lights down. Someone shouts Oteil. Noise swells. Bangs, thumps, a chunk of B3 and a momentary ominous drop in the volume level produces a sinking feeling in the stomach. Snatches of tuned guitar. After a pregnant pause the NY logo appears on the screen behind the stage.

11:28 BLAST OFF! (Quite literally) Don't Want You No More

11:32 > It's Not My Cross To Bear. Love this stuff. great little solo from Derek, hopefully the first of many to come. So far this is everything yesterday wasn't. Interesting little play out leads into You Don't Love Me. Watching this stuff on your own isn't the best option. Scan horizon for incoming visitors.

11:39 Gregg miscues, and attempts to cut into Derek's solo. Madam arrives home from morning tea with Tai Chi people. Have you rung Warbo? Attempt to call him, advise Dragon Lady her better half needs to get down here ASAP as I note Christian appear on the horizon. Mate, get in here quick!

11:45 Midnight Rider.

11:52 Latin tinged groove leads into Who's Been Talking? Christian (referring to Derek's solo) Sounds like a crazy gypsy violinist. He's French. He knows his gypsy violinists...

12:02 Trouble No More

12:08 Blind Willie McTell. Stunning. Need a recording of this. Must check Instant Live/MunckMusic or whatever. How long is it likely to take to get it up there?

12:15 Percussive groove leads into something instrumental I don't recognize. First hint of a (momentary) glitch at 12:18.

12:26 Walk On Gilded Splinters. Love it!

12:33 Woman Across The River isn't my favourite track of all time, but this one smokes.

12:43 Intermission. Nibbles. Ham and cucumber sandwiches. Kirrihill Baile An Gharrai 2006 Shiraz Mourvedre Grenache. Christian's from Chateauneuf Du Pape and likes the Rhone-style blend. Glance at the hibiscus outside.

This is the life....

1:16 Susan Tedeschi on stage for Comin' Home, doing a passable impression of a primary school librarian. Don't get me wrong. I like school librarians, and I'm sure I've seen someone who looks exactly like that in the course of a thirty-five-year teaching career.

Wish the school librarians I worked with sang and played like that.

1:22 Gregg sings something I don't recognize. Divert attention from this by pointing out room for improvement in the director's department. Actually, the camera's inability to locate the guitarist actually playing the solo is becoming a source of increasing, well, annoyance isn't quite the right word but I can't think of the one that is...

1:34 Revival. Warbo arrives on the doorstep with news of a possible cyclone in the Coral Sea.

1:45 ?? Gregg vocal. All My Friends? Speaking of friends, Warbo heads off to secure things on the boat.

1:50 Leave My Blues At Home >

1:53 JabuMa/Oteil

1:56 Momentary visual glitch as Butch moves to the Tympani. Relentless percussion continues relentlessly.

2:07 Having finished Leave My Blues At Home with Butch on his kit, the sight of him heading for the Tympani suggests (correctly, as it turns out) that we're in for a Mountain Jam.

2:11 Minor visual glitch.

2:17 > 44 Blues? Sounds like the riff. No, it's Smokestack Lightning. Yeah, well they're pretty close aren't they?

2:28 > Mountain Jam theme. Visual glitch a minute or so later.

2:30 Encore break. Christian escapes.

2:35 Southbound with Susan on guitar and vocals.

2:41 Thank y'all. Goodnight and God bless. Little Martha.



Having typed that up, at this point I could sit here and gush.

Literally.

Let's just leave it at an earlier remark. Today was everything yesterday should have been, and the fact that we now know that live sound and vision of this quality can be streamed, almost glitch-free, into regional Australia is nothing short of amazing.

Hats off to Butch and all involved...

Seriously.

And the set list:

First Set:
Don't Want You Know More> It’s Not My Cross To Bear
You Don't Love Me
Midnight Rider
Who's Been Talking
Trouble No More
Blind Willie McTell
Egypt
Walk On Gilded Splinters
Woman Across The River

Second Set
Coming Home (with Susan Tedeschi, guitar, vocals)
Lost Lover (with Susan Tedeschi, guitar, vocals)
Revival
All My Friends
Leave My Blues At Home> Bass> Drums> Leave My Blues At Home
Mountain Jam > Smokestack Lightning> Mountain Jam

Encore:
Southbound (with Susan Tedeschi, guitar, vocals)