Thursday, 18 March 2010
Allman Brothers Band United Palace Theatre New York 16 March 2010
9:49 Log on to find Warren in mid-flow again and notice something called Jam Cam lurking in between Close and Chat on the small screen Moogis window. Race into office to check that I haven't been caught out again.
Nope. According to the World Time Widget it's 19:52 in New York. Fine. Surely they wouldn't have started eight minutes before (and half an hour or so before the in practice) scheduled starting time. Still dubious after yesterday.
9:53 Into Walk On Gilded Splinters, which was played on 12 March, so perhaps what I caught before was the end of Egypt. If the next number's Woman Across The River we'll know.
Go across to investigate Jam Cam. Get what looks like a view of someone's drum kit from behind. Jam in Jam Cam = Jaimoe? More than likely, but disinclined to interrupt the view of the whole stage during the webcast. Something to investigate later. Jaimoe has seemed particularly low-profile during the rest of the shows. Something to do with the stage configuration and camera positions?
Subsequent information reveals this is first time for Jam Cam (explains why I hadn’t noticed it before) and that it focused on Butch. Attempt to finish reading article about big business sponsorship of conservation groups in the US. Fail to get too far because...
9:59 Splinters stops and looks like we're into preparing to go to the live feed mode.
10:01 'shroom backdrop hoves into view. Try to read article. Unable to maintain focus. Back to restless wandering mode.
10:12 Some DJ revs up the audience. Do we really need this? I mean, if you’re there, you’re not going to be excited? You’re not going to be making a noise? Get real.
10:18 David Bowie Changes over the PA. Hardly what I'd describe as an obvious choice.
10:23 Signs of life on stage as PA volume drops.
10:24 Upswell of crowd noise. Bangs, thumps and a whistle. Writing these notes helps fill in the time.
10:25 Brief drum rolls. Almost set.
10:26 ABB logo. There's a familiar pattern emerging. Assorted tune up noises. Keyboards, bangs, thumps and tapping on various percussive devices.
10:27 Don't Want You No More
10:31 > Not My Cross To Bear
10:35 Momentary cuts in sound. Screen freezes. Slide show mode.
10:36 More drop outs as we head off to Leave My Blues At Home.
10:42 Duelling intermeshing guitars, not quite what you might call pyrotechnics but one of the (many) things we're here for.
10:45 Midnight Rider
10:53 There's that lurching Howlin' Wolf riff. Forty Four? Or Smokestack Lightning? Yep, Forty Four...
11:06 End Of the Line. Another one to cross off the ones I'm hoping for list.
11:12 Visuals freeze. Guitar interaction continues unabated. Is there a bit more interweaving between Warren and Derek than there has been, or am I just noticing something at a level that's always there?
11:13 Percussive intro to instrumental piece. I obviously don't know whether I'm in Bag End, Egypt or somewhere else entirely. Turns out it’s Egypt.
11:27 The Same Thing
11:32 > Oteil scat. Nice!
11:35 There's that guitar interaction again. Can't help thinking they're working off each other more than usual.
11:36 Revival
11:45 Intermission
12:16 About to go back live. Have given up on expecting visitors. Will just have to enjoy the show on my own.
12:20 Well, not quite ready. Murky figures walk across the darkened stage. James Blood Ulmer introduced, one of the names I've run across repeatedly over the years but never quite managed to investigate. The loneliness of the isolated music fan I guess. Unfamiliarity with the man's work has me stumped for a title for this old-sounding blues. Subsequent checks reveal that the classic line I Asked For Water, She Gave Me Gasoline is the title.
Recommendations for a starting point for investigation needed.
12:29 One Way Out
12:34 Madam has joined me with the news that she loves Gregg's voice. She's hardly Robinson Crusoe in that department.
12:36 Is this Blind Willie McTell? Yep. Hope it's on the rumoured new numbers live album. Think I preferred Saturday's but that was probably the newness factor. Remark to Madam that if I could put this track into a time machine back to 1973 it would have been close to the perfect soundtrack to my year on Palm Island.
12:42 Madam decides that Warren's voice is actually nice too. Me? I'm digging the harmonies. Simple but stunningly effective.
12:44 Eric Krasno. Asked who he is, reply that I think he plays with Soulive. That's What Love Can Do For You. Second time around. Someone must dig it a bit more than I do. Must admit I'm not that big on Woman Across The River either, but suspect Warren's viewpoint is diametrically opposite to mine.
12:51 There's that interplay again. Actually it's been there right through the show.
12:54 No One Left To Run With.
Now it's obvious that someone likes this pleasant enough little leaf out of the Bo Diddley riff-book, but it's hardly something you'd expect to hear three times in five nights, is it? Does it tie in with the light show? Seem to recall some comment along those lines from a few years back.
12:59 Lengthy glitch. Sound and vision freezes. Sound back first.
1:05 After ten minutes of No One Left suspect it's in there in the lengthy second set workout slot.
1:08 No that can't be right. Here's Liz Reed.
Derek's solo! Actually I'd like a healthy dash of rumbo for every time I could have written those two words with the regulation exclamation mark. A man would end up a staggering stumbling mumbling wreck, of course, but...
1:17 > keys
1:21 And 13 minutes into IMOER JaBuMa kicks in. Oteil, predictably to Butch's kit.
1:28 Oteil back to bass.
1:31 Back to the guitar interplay. Suspect that I'm noticing it because they're really obviously firing off each other. What you might define as hittin' the note, I guess...
1:33 Thank you.
1:35 On comes Rob Barraco on piano. Eric Krasno back too. Southbound.
1:44 Yeah, thank y'all so much. Happy Saint Patrick's Day. See y'all Thursday Little Martha.
Looking back on the show, it's obvious that there's a fair bit of variation in the old mileage when it comes to certain songs.
I've got a swag of ABB tapes and CDs and am firmly convinced that on aural grounds No One Left To Run With gets far more exposure than would seem to be justified in the cold hard light of independent scrutiny. There was a time when I suspected that it was one of Dickey's favourites, since it seemed to turn up towards the end of every show when he was calling the shots, more often than not in the encore spot.
This apparent fondness for songs that don't seem to have a lot going for them has had me intrigued over the years. A glance at Little Feat set lists has me thinking much the same way about Honest Man and Hoy Hoy, for example.
But what I’m really getting at is this. Which would you prefer, a third serve of No One or one of the following?
Franklin's Tower
High Cost Of Low Living
Instrumental Illness
I've Been Loving You Too Long
Layla
Les Brers In A Minor
Maydell
Old Before My Time
Please Call Home
Soulshine
Stormy Monday
Wasted Words
Worried Down With The Blues
Having made that point, I rest my case...
Ah, and the set list:
Set 1:
Don't Want You No More > Not My Cross To Bear > Leave My Blues At Home
Midnight Rider
44 Blues
End Of The Line
Egypt
The Same Thing
Revival
Set 2:
I Asked For Water (James Blood Ulmer, guitar)
One Way Out
Blind Willie McTell
That's What Love Will Make You Do (Eric Krasno, guitar)
No One To Run With
In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed > JaMaBuOt > In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
Encore:
Southbound (Rob Barraco, keys)
