My trips to NY to see ABB at the Beacon Theater are so special to me. Because of those shows I got to experience things I never would've otherwise and met people I still stay in touch with today. And being in that theater and seeing and feeling those shows...wow.

First year I went was 2003. My wife and I only had tickets to one show on a two night trip to the city. After seeing the previous night's show we were sitting in a bar in midtown sometime after 7 and I said what are we doing here? Let's go to the show tonight! Bought upper balcony tickets at the box office and got to our seats just into the first song.

I have a lot of great memories from the Beacon, but I am happy they ended the way they did. The best way to go out is on a high note and they did. No regrets.

I too am having a hard time this march. I don't think it hit last march since the last shows were just a few months before in the fall. I'm glad they hung it up properly though. I guess it's more nostalgia i'm feeling.
I miss it all. The shows, the people, the pre and post game bars, the after hours jams. Maybe it's getting older but most of the pre and post show good times were best in the Dickey era with things like the DTB at the Wetlands going on. NYC in general was better in that era also.

one of my favorite post show memories is the P&G bar 2006. Cornell Dupree, and his wife, Jerry Jermont, bernard perdie, Mike Mattison and Derek hanging out late on a week night with a light crowd with the world baseball classic on the TV. Very good times.

After a very long time of not listening to them, yesterday I put on peakin at the beacon and one way out from 03. Peakin is what it is but it's the ABB from that time and I did enjoy it somewhat.
One Way Out , I recall seemed flat compared to the instant lives that started becoming available around that time but i think it aged well and was surprised how good it sounded. Theres something about the beacon vibe that his hard to get across on DVDS and live albums.
However, Play all night 92. absolutely smokes ! what a show. give it a spin if it's been a while...

For a fan who first saw the band in 1970 and still misses Duane and Berry, the Dickey years at the Beacon were the best for the band for me too including the way the band SOUNDED. It sounded more like the Allman Brothers and having Gregg and Dickey on the stage was similar to seeing the Eagles with Glen Frye and Don Henley or the Stones with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Warren and Derek did a good job moving the band forward though. Technically they may have been better than any of the previous incarnations of the band. Butch Trucks said they were. Maybe he was right but to this old fan, it had kinda of a tribute band feel just a little at times...especially when they did Blue Sky or Jessica or Liz Reed and it stuck out that Dickey wasn't there just as it did when Gregg missed some shows and Warren sung Whipping Post. But the REAL DEAL Allman Brothers was the original band. Anybody who saw the original band when they were hittin' the note knows the Warren/Derek version didn't have that kind of mojo.

Dickey being out of the lineup was almost as big a hole in the legacy and vibe of seeing the Allman Brothers as Gregg being missing.

With that said it was clear from Gregg and Butch that there would have been no more ABB post 2000 if Dickey was not faxed. Gregg and Butch were going to quit before they would have continued with Dickey. Now Gregg wants to play with Dickey again and misses him and that is a good thing. I'm not sure if Dickey is up to playing again though. He is retired and according to the internet is worth 40 million dollars compared to Gregg's 15 million. Not sure how Dickey got so far ahead of Gregg in the money department. Ramblin' Man? So Dickey absolutely does not need to work.

Well I mentioned the Eagles and that site has Don Henley at over 200 million!!! And Keith Richards and Mick Jagger at over 300 million. Gregg Allman sounds like a poor man compared to that. That is amazing. All the musicians in bands around my home town would be homeless if their girlfriends kicked them out. And some of these guys are very good. How good you are does NOT equal who is worth the most money.

Back to the Warren/Derek version. That version of the band was excellent technically and apparently they got along well. But was it really the Allman Brothers? Or was any version of the band after Duane and Berry split? I guess so because 3 original members and until 2000 4 originals were still there and that is what the called it. Actually I saw the band 3 or 4 times in late 1980 and 1981 and Jaimoe had been voted out and it bugged me. The tandem drums didn't sound the same with Butch and David Toler and the vibe was more like the Gregg Allman Band and the Dickey Betts Band play at the same time than a real ABB show.

As I listen back to the shows at the Beacon I have, and with all due respect to Warren and Derek who ARE two of the finest musicians working today, the Jack/Dickey/Otiel version of the band may have come the closest to the vibe and sound of the original. Even Jack's slide playing sounds more like Duane and I use to assume Derek was the closest to Skydog. Anybody agree?

As I listen back to the shows at the Beacon I have, and with all due respect to Warren and Derek who ARE two of the finest musicians working today, the Jack/Dickey/Otiel version of the band may have come the closest to the vibe and sound of the original. Even Jack's slide playing sounds more like Duane and I use to assume Derek was the closest to Skydog. Anybody agree?

Jack always had Duane's curve-tones the best and certainly came the closest to really capturing Duane's feel and tone at times, but he often would hold a note too long ( I remember one show where his ENTIRE Hot Lanta solo one ONE note) and always seemed to be a little too patient. So in the end for me, Jack was closer to Duane in a lot of ways than any of the others but his pace and penchant for holding notes too long lands him second in my book to Warren's slide work on the whole.

I feel like when Dickey played straight lead and Warren played slide that sounded the most like the original band to me. You can never touch the original lineup but Dickey/lead+Warren/slide always sounded the closest to me.

I have always enjoyed parts, but to me Liz Reed never recovered from the loss of Duane. Dickey and Chuck had great versions and I think the Dickey Toler versions were ok but the Warren Dickey ones had moments but were on the whole jus not tight enough. I can't stand how at the end of Warren's solo the whole song seems to deflate like a giant balloon while Gregg' solo gets underway. The fact that Dickey would often play a no more than 45 second solo, 10 seconds of which was the peak riff, didn't help either. Some nice moments to be sure like Liz Reed from Red Rocks 95 - Dickey's solo and Warren's dirty rhythm chords and creating percussion - but it was too disjointed on the whole. Same with Jack and the Warren Derek Liz Reeds - great moments and certainly enjoyable but I felt like they were too loose.

[Edited on 3/16/2016 by axeman]

"I feel like when Dickey played straight lead and Warren played slide that sounded the most like the original band to me. You can never touch the original lineup but Dickey/lead+Warren/slide always sounded the closest to me."

My thoughts as well. When I heard in '89 that the Brothers were giving it another try, I was very skeptical and didn't follow it very closely. Summer of either '90 or '91 they played the old Greenville memorial Aud. which is an hour's drive. Three friends and I bought tics and rode up to see, the new ABB. they opened with Statesboro Blues and just a few bars in we were all standing there mouths open saying yes yes! They smoked the old barn for nearly four hours that night and I was hooked again. When Warren & Woody left the band, I thought Oh No here we go again, but I went to Charlotte that July to see & hear the Jack version and left impressed. Different but very good in a lot of ways. One of my all time favorite players, but not the closest to Duane's playing for me. Now I love me some Derek Trucks too and will follow his career as long as I'm able, but for my tastes, I think Warren's slide playing comes closer to Duane in tone and overall sound. Much more Bluesy to my ears.

[Edited on 3/16/2016 by willieB69]

ABB at the Beacon and Lesh at the Capitol have kept me sane over a many year stretch.