March Madness

Tonight began the Allman Brothers Band's run at the Beacon Theater, an amazing piece of music history that any fan of this band needs to experience. A kind of hajj one needs to complete, if not being able to experience a Red Rocks show. Thankfully, very thankfully, I've had the blessings of being able to experience both. The former in 2004, the latter in 2001. Tonight's setlist and early reviews are showing the band in top form and typical fashion. New material, lotso guests and jams jams jams. The one thing I love about the band is the fact that the soloists never overplay; one major problem of any instrumentally-based performance group is the tendancy of a musician to play when the moment of WOW! has passed. The modern day Dead suffer from it as do most jam bands. I'll say that Branford's quartet can be described as such only in like describing an hour-long orgasm - after a while, you're spent, alright, you're spent; we get it; you're gods, stop! The Allman Brothers, however, always leave one wanting more. Even when a fan, like myself, has listened to countless thousands of hours of music by the respective players of the band (to the point where I can tell you what the guy's going to play next) and still be killed by the performance gestalt is a band truly of legendary status. I've seen the Allmans more than any other band and I've seen them in various lineups and I must say that there isn't a greater live band doing what it does in the world. Even as the setlist sticks to the same twenty-five or so songs, even as the light show (gawd, the lightshow!) hasn't changed in twenty years, even when one wonders when the band will officially retire (this year, probably) the Allman Brothers Band is one of God's greatest gifts to the world of music affecianadoes. I only pray they make it to the Bay Area some time before they retire.