FREAKIN’ AT THE BEACON

In a few minutes, the lights will go down and I will get a chance to see the latest installment of the Allman Brothers. Frankly, I have somewhat mixed feelings. I am thrilled by the prospect of Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes playing on the same stage, and Warren’s return to the band after a four-year absence feels like a homecoming. However, the absence of Dickey Betts and the continuing aftershocks of his rancorous split with the band still cast a shadow over the proceedings.

"Trouble No More" gets the show rolling with hot and dirty blues. "Not My Cross To Bear" continues in this vein, but the band doesn’t really hit their stride until "Ain’t Wastin Time No More." This ode to living for the present, written by Gregg Allman shortly after Duane’s death, sounded great, with Derek really stepping out for the first time.

Next it was Warren’s turn to sing, and the rarely played "Just Before The Bullets Fly" was a gritty blast of blues rock that played to his strengths. "Sailin' Cross the Devil's Sea" was another tune from Warren’s earlier tenure with the band, but I was more impressed by "Who To Believe," the first brand new song of the evening. "Loaded Dice" was never one of my favorites, but "What’s Done Is Done" rocked, with the title gaining extra poignancy in light of last year’s ugliness.

"Southbound" was the first Dickey Betts tune of the night, and the first time that Warren and Derek really got on the same wavelength. Rather than just trading solos, here they were trading licks back and forth and showing the great guitar interplay that the Allmans are famous for. Hopefully there will be more of that in the second set.

The second set opened with "Rockin Horse," a Gov't Mule song that was co-written by Gregg. It sounded right at home in the Allmans repertoire, and got the second set off to a great start. "Black Hearted Woman" has always been a favorite of mine, and this version was intense, if not particularly tight. "Leave My Blues At Home" didn’t quite make it for me, but I consider it be one of their lesser songs.

It was weird to hear the Otis Redding classic "I’ve Been Loving You Too Long" at an Allman Brothers concert. I had always known that Warren Haynes had soul, but I don’t think I knew how much until I heard him sing this song. Warren’s pain at losing Allen Woody, his best friend and musical partner for over ten years, was evident in every heart-stopping wail and every bent note. "Feel So Bad" featured Derek’s girlfriend Susan Tedeschi, who was great, but I felt that the set was losing momentum. Warren’s take on "Worried Down With The Blues" was nice, but still didn’t produce any really memorable jams.

"Dreams" was positively transcendent, easily the highlight of the night for many fans, including myself. Warren eschewed the slide in favor of haunting straight leads during his solo, while Derek took the legendary slide solo and pushed it to new heights. Some fans have speculated that Derek was genetically engineered for the specific purpose of playing this song, and a performance like this adds credence to that theory. Derek’s unique tone flowed through a wide variety of colorful landscapes before delivering the big finish with style.

The end of "Dreams" segued neatly into a version of "Elizabeth Reed" that was unlike any I had ever heard before. It seemed to take a while to get going, but a great flute solo by Kofi Burbridge took the jam into some truly jazzy territory. Derek and Warren both played good solos, but the overall feel of the song wasn’t quite there for me. Dickey’s presence was missed on this song, I felt, even if the rest of the show was very solid.

"One Way Out" and "Statesboro Blues" finished the show off on a blue note, with Rob Baracco of Phil and Friends adding some hot piano to a good version of "Statesboro." "One Way Out" had a subdued intro that didn’t do a lot for me, I must say, although it had plenty of guitar heroics by both Derek and Warren.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this show. At times, it seemed like there was too much talent on stage. The individual talents of Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, Warren Haynes and Gregg Allman were all showcased to brilliant effect, but there was a certain lack of focus at times. Special guests Susan Tedeschi, Kofi Burbridge, Rob Baracco, Matt Abts and Yonrico Scott all played well, but the amount of guests helped contribute to a chaotic vibe. "It’s like a revolving door up here," Warren joked at one point, and although it was great to see that much talent on stage at once, it was often distracting.

On the other hand, this sounded like a very creative band with a lot of potential. The core triad of Warren, Derek, and Oteil have the sort of musical kinship and communication that made the original trio of Duane, Berry, and Dickey so powerful, and the new material sounded very strong. Even if there was a lack of focus or tightness at times, the energy level was high from start to finish and I felt like I had a lot to look forward to as far as Saturday was concerned.

After the show, comments, criticisms, and opinions weren’t hard to find at the Beacon Hotel. Many people had the same sort of problems I had with the show’s lack of coherence, and several people felt that Warren was too dominant. Many people have ridiculed the Betts-less ABB as Gregg Allman and Friends, but if you were at the Hotel Beacon last weekend you would have heard more references to "The Warren Haynes Band."

This was especially frustrating to those of us who are big Derek Trucks fans. I overheard someone complain that "Derek was too damn polite" and I have to agree. Part of Warren Haynes’ charm is his direct, take-no-prisoners style, and it would be against his very personality for him to hold back in any way. The only way this thing is going to work is if Derek steps up to Warren’s level and and be more aggressive. We’ll see if he is up to that task tomorrow.

THE ST. PATRICK’S DAY MIRACLE
From the opening sustained note of "Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’" onward, it was apparent that Saturday’s show was going to take things up a notch. "All Night Train," which I remembered as a fairly mediocre tune that the band hadn’t played in years, was revamped to include a red-hot slide duel, and two songs into the show the band was smoking.

"The High Cost of Low Living" is a great name for a song, and thankfully this song lives up to its name. Derek was utterly spectacular on this new song and he seemed much more confident and aggressive that he had been on Friday. It was Warren’s turn to get aggressive next, as he played an awe-inspiring guitar intro that led into a fearsome version of "Hoochie Coochie Man." This song, more than any other, spotlighted the band’s new sound, a grittier blues-rock blend that had little of Dickey Betts’ country influence.

A spiritually uplifting rendition of "Soulshine" was a big crowd pleaser from Warren’s earlier stint with the band, but I probably could have done without "Loaded Dice." This version of "Jessica," on the other hand, was a revelation. Considering how distinctive Dickey’s guitar sound is, I had grown accustomed to the idea that his songs would never sound "right" without him, even if they sounded good. The somewhat choppy version of "Elizabeth Reed" on Friday night did nothing to change that opinion. It was well-played and had some great moments, but it didn’t really hold together as a whole.

However, this "Jessica" didn’t just sound great, it achieved something more elusive: It sounded like "Jessica." While it was very different from any version I had heard with Dickey Betts, there was enough continuity to convince my ears and soul that it was an extension of that song’s great tradition. Derek, Warren, and Oteil locked together, playing as one, exhibiting the kind of musical telepathy that is the hallmark of the Allman Brothers at their best.

Setbreak was a lively and social affair, as everyone seemed astonished at the energy level and raw power of the first set. The second set opened with the timeless "Midnight Rider," which featured some of the purest, most crystalline slide work I’ve ever heard.

Even so, it was only a prelude to "Who To Believe," a new song that allowed Derek to shine. Any complaints about his lurking in Warren’s shadow on Friday were quickly forgotten by the end of this song, which also featured some of Gregg’s best singing of the night. Like many fans, I had been skeptical when I heard about new material, but at this point I started to realize how good these new songs are. Even if Warren isn’t going to be touring with the band, I sincerely hope he will go into the studio with them and flesh out this material.

Keyboard player Danny Lewis joined the band next for "The Same Thing," which many people acclaimed as the jam of the night. Aficionados of tension/release jamming really need to give this a listen. Lewis, a jazz player I believe, brought some interesting dissonances to the table, stretching the Allmans’ musical palette in new and exciting ways. The peak of this jam broke all the rules and destroyed all musical boundaries between jazz, blues, and rock, and we weren’t even halfway through the set! Lewis was by far my favorite guest appearance of the weekend.

If you love slide guitar, this version of "Done Somebody Wrong" contains an impassioned duel between two masters of this underappreciated art form. I remember thinking that a tour with this lineup could advertise every show as "The World Slide Guitar Championship." "Gamblers Roll" and "Rockin Horse" followed, giving Warren a chance to do his thing.

Even more so than with "Jessica," I was astounded at how well this band rendered the Dickey Betts classic "High Falls." Oteil Burbridge nailed the bouncy bass line as Warren and Derek interwove passionate guitar lines over the top, and as he did all weekend, Gregg surprised me by being a full participant in the jam, laying down wonderful organ fills. The symphonic intro and coda were particularly majestic and befitting the splendor of the Beacon Theater. For the first time, I really felt in my bones that this song and "Jessica" and other Betts-penned songs are part of the Allman Brothers musical legacy, and that musical legacy is bigger than any one man, even if he is Dickey Betts.

"One Way Out" and "Statesboro Blues" were both much tighter than they were on Friday, but the main event was yet to come. Many Allman Brothers fans consider "Whipping Post" the Holy Grail of ABB songs. I had seen them play it before, but it had never even come close to matching the intensity of the legendary Fillmore East version.

Well, this one came close. It didn’t get all the way there, but it howled with such rage and passion that it was barely recognizable as the song I had seen before. I was not alone in thinking this was the "Whipping Post" I had always wanted to see, what Johnny Anderson calls "The most powerful song ever written by the most powerful band of all time." Derek was in full radical deconstruction mode, bringing his solo down to a whisper before blowing the roof off the place. As one fan put it, Derek created "Whipping Post" from nothing, which is no small feat.

After mouthing "Good job!" to Derek, Warren stepped up and matched him with a powerful solo of his own that dripped with passion and soul. Oteil was with Warren all the way, following him into even the most forbidding musical territory. Warren also deserves credit for leading the band through an elegant prolonged ending that finished with the crowd literally high-fiving each other in the aisles.

AFTERMATH
In fact, I have rarely seen a crowd as pumped up after a show. Public opinion is a notoriously fickle and inaccurate barometer of artistic quality, but for what it’s worth, even those who were skeptical about Friday’s show were glowing about Saturday. "They knocked me off my feet tonight," admitted long time fan Jim Frawley. When asked why, he immediately responded "The passion, the intensity." I can’t think of two words that better describe the ABB at their best.

The party raged into the night, but there was still a bittersweet quality to it all. As I write this, nobody knows whether this band will ever play together again after this current Beacon run. Warren has apparently committed to touring with Phil and Friends this summer, and as good as he is, not even Warren can be in two places at once. That was one of the things that made these shows so special, though: The very fact that they might not happen again.

However, thanks to the miracle of taping, even those who missed these shows the first time around will get a chance to hear what this very different version of the ABB sounds like. I know I can’t wait to hear it again, especially "Dreams" and "Elizabeth Reed" from Friday night and "The Same Thing," "High Falls," and "Whipping Post" from Saturday. And even if this version of the Allman Brothers is a hothouse flower, destined to bloom and die in a short period of time, it sure was beautiful while it lasted.

Robert Johnson
JamBase Atlanta Correspondent - On The Road
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