Friday, 25 March 2011
Allman Brothers Band Beacon Theatre New York 24 March 2011
Have a lovely weekend, said the girl up at the butcher's shop on the corner (with a big smile).
Faced with a third weekend of Beacon shows, I'd have to admit I like my chances, though I've probably just torpedoed those prospects by saying so.
Not that I would've come out with a comment along those lines, you understand.
The fact that Hughesy's setting to watch all thirteen shows live, as they happen, in their entirety, has caused a fair bit of head-scratching among the friends and acquaintances, none of whom have lobbed on the doorstep to see what the fuss is all about.
That may change this weekend, assuming Christian has finished cleaning up mould and mildew, and Byrnesy takes up the invitation extended when he answered a message left while he was on the annual surfathon to Byron Bay.
Neither, however, is likely to lob for today's show which will, according to speculation, feature Leslie West from Mountain (info courtesy of his FaceBook page, so probably accurate) and a run through the Fillmore East album in honour of the band's 200th appearance at the Beacon, which seems less likely given the fact that they've already done something very similar earlier in the run.
Hmmm. Still, all will be revealed in the fullness of time.
10:15 In line with revised operating procedures, log on to Moogis, hit the Live Webcast button and switch from High Res to Standard, refraining from going to full screen mode just yet. That's probably not going to make a great deal of actual difference (at least that's what I thought at the time, as it turns out at the time of writing we're down about 450MB from Tuesday) but like tomorrow night's Earth Hour there's some comfort in the feeling that you're doing something, even if something equates to three-fifths of five-eighths of stuff all.
The PA soundtrack seems to be favouring the hard rock end of the spectrum rather than the blues, which leaves me wondering whether this is a portent of things to come.
Of course, as is the way of such things, as soon as I've made a note to that effect on comes Howlin' Wolf.
10:39 Swirl of organ temporarily swamps the PA, followed by piano, which I take as the signal to switch to full screen mode. That's getting close to half an hour since the original log in without a start, but if I hadn't logged in back then they'd have started right on the dot of 10:15, wouldn't they?
Murphy's Law and all that.
10:40 Rising crowd noise. Tapping percussion. According to the Fillmore East In sequence theory we should be close to getting the One. Two. One, two, three, four count in, but at present there's just the swish of cymbals.
10:43 ABB logo.
10:44 This definitely doesn't sound like we're headed for Statesboro, but you can never tell with ABBs. Rattling percussion. There's no place like home. Chunks of organ, tinkling piano. ABB logo.
10:46 Don't Want You No More. Mental image of theory descending in flames.
10:48 > It's Not My Cross To Bear.
10:54 Don't Keep Me Wonderin'
10:58 The band seems to be firing on all cylinders as they head into a driving percussive beat with Warren in wah wah mode. Sounds like The River's Gonna Rise, which it does.
11:08 Done Somebody Wrong
11:11 First major dropout of the night. Predictably it occurs in the middle of a stinging Derek solo.
11:13 Crashing introduction, and here we are, presumably headed into the First Set Long Instrumental, which I'm guessing, based on the rotation, will be Bag End. A severe case of lost speed and spinning beach ball prompts a Force Quit from Safari and by the time I'm back in at 11:17 we're well into a Warren solo with not much chance of picking up on riffs or distinctive themes even if we knew them by heart, which we don't.
11:25 Must be about Guest Time, close to forty minutes into the set. How you feline' this evening? from Warren as he introduced Danny Louis on keys, Sean Pelton on drums and, as expected Leslie West on guitar.
11:27 Crossroads. Reflect that Me West isn't quite the man-Mountain I'd expected, but then he's standing beside Mr Haynes, who's quite substantial in his own right.
11:31 Warren takes over the vocal after a rather tasty challenge-response bit with Mr West.
11:33 Derek's turn.
11:35 Another verse from LW, then more tasty interplay between Derek and guest.
11:36 Goin' Down. Jamie van der Bogert on drums.
11:45 As Warren name checks the guests and Leslie West departs, Hughesy muses that was nowhere near the train wreck that some had predicted.
11:46 You Don't Love Me
11:53 Thank you. We're gonna take a lil' short break. Don't go away.
Despite those instructions I quit out of Safari and head off to lunch. Since the break's usually around the half hour mark we should be right if we're back in, say twenty minutes. Note emphasis on the should.
12:23 The regulation half-hour break finishes with the familiar bangs, thumps, guitar chords and off-mic conversation. Presumably, given an acoustic guitar strum, we'll be opening with Melissa.
12:25 Melissa it is. Not my favourite way to start the set, but someone obviously likes it.
12:31 Welcome my friend John Kadlecik from Furthur on guitar. Come On In My Kitchen. Note Derek doesn't seem to be spending as much time beside the keys tonight (or have I just stopped noticing?)
12:40 Maydell. To be followed by Manic Depression?
12:44 Sure enough, there's the Oteil vocal.
12:50 No One Left To Run With. Well, at least we know it won't be turning up as the encore. Actually, I'm starting to warm to it. Maybe the NOLTRW as the encore again factor is wearing off.
1:04 More guests from the Gregg Allman Band. Would note names but can't write fast enough.
1:06 What's this? That's What Love Can Do For You. Lost signal, but back in much more easily than usual.
1:10 When Warren was running through the list of guests I don't recall him mentioning the drum tech sub on Jaimoe's kit. Maybe he didn't notice.
1:17 Warren runs down the roll call of guests over the rolling tympani over the rolling tympani that indicate a Mountain Jam.
1:32 Warren departs at the start of what I expect to develop into > Bass > JaBuMaOt.
1:36 > Drums
1:43 Oteil heads back. They'll be pushing to finish the encore by two.
1:52 Thank you so much. Thank y'all. Thank you so much. What a great bunch, as everyone bar Jaimoe departs.
1:55 We'll see how many people we can get out here, Warren says, and in the crush there's no room for Derek. Southbound.
2:05 Thank y'all so much. God bless ya. We'll be here tomorrow night, and the next.
2:06 Little Martha.
1st Set
Don’t Want You No More> It’s Not My Cross to Bear
Please Don't Keep Me Wonderin'
River's Gonna Rise
Done Somebody Wrong
Bag End
Crossroads (Leslie West, Guitar & Vocals, Sean Pelton, Drums, Danny Louis, Piano)
Goin’ Down (Leslie West, Guitar & Vocals, Sean Pelton, Drums, Danny Louis, Piano, James van der Bogert, Drums)
You Don't Love Me
2nd Set
Melissa
Come On In My Kitchen (John Kadlecik, Guitar)
Maydell> Manic Depression
No One Left to Run With
That’s What Love Will Make You Do (Jay Collins, Sax, Scott Sharrard, Guitar, Reggie Pittman, Trumpet, Brian Mitchell, Piano, James van der Bogert, Drums)
Mountain Jam> Oteil> JaBuMaOt> Mountain Jam
Encore:
Southbound (Jay Collins, Sax, Scott Sharrard, Guitar, Reggie Pittman, Trumpet, Brian Mitchell, Piano, Tom Guarna, Guitar)
