Can't top these wonderfully worded posts
Watkins Glen is biggest memory -- also seeing Gregg at the Music Hall Boston April 1974 -- a great day that included a long bike ride on a perfect cool day -- then the show that nite & people congregated downstairs at the old Music Hall to "get ready" 😉 for the show -- great vibe & couldn't see across the room -- cloudy 😉 -- then lites blink, upstairs to seats & Don't Mess Up A Good Thing
have always thanked Bird72 for sending a copy of that show & he's just one of so many nice people here on the boards -- cheers!
So many.Over 100 shows.
8-16-78 DB&GS turns into an ABB reunion in Central Park
My first ABB show at Roosevelt Stadium in 197?
1st row seats at MSG in 79
Thanksgiving night at MSG in 75
Lighting up with Dickey after a BHLT show at the Bottom Line
2nd row seats for the 40th anniversary show at the Beacon
The many BHLT,DB&GS,GAB shows that got me through the dark times
Taking my daughter to her 1st concert,ABB at Jones Beach(No way it would be anyone else)
The goodness of my wife for sitting through a couple of cold,rainy nights at Jones Beach with a smile instead of a whine even though she's not the biggest fan,but she knew what it meant to me,and her understanding of my love for the ABB all these years
Standing through a torrential show long rainstorm at Jones Beach(without my wife)
The 100 degree heat at The Round Up in Philly in 1980(I think)
The joy of turning my dear friend TCLawrence into an ABB fan.I created a monster.
Standing in line overnight at Ticketron(remember those days) to get 4 of the last 8 tickets left for a show at Rutgers University
The Beacon parties
The people I've met on this site
LAST NIGHT
and so many more.
Came from Cleveland to the Beacon for the first time with my college aged son and two of his friends in 2006 and our journey expanded to include 28 folks from around the country in NYC this past March. Beside the music some of my fondest memories (including this past Monday) are hanging in the Amsterdam Ale House before a show getting into wonderful discussions with total strangers about the band. Every year meeting new friends. I met Ken Dick that way a few years back and through him I have become a regular at Helen's Hilton. That perhaps is what I will miss the most.
Some recollections from the 26 shows I was fortunate enough to attend:
1989 Boston - My 1st show: I got to the Orpheum, met my buddy and realized I left the tickets in my car at the T in Quincy. Managed to make it back and forth without missing a song. I remember a guy in the balcony being the only one standing early on and shouting at everyone “STAND UP! IT’S THE F*ING ALLMAN BROTHERS!!!!” - Great start…
2001 – Hartford: My first with the last and longest tenured line up. It was an emotional show as it was the 1 year anniversary of Woody’s passing.
2004 – Beacon: My first Beacon show, got someone’s extra Orchestra Row M on the street for face value (imagine that happening last night?) Every Hungry Woman right out of the gate – crazy! The highlight for me may have been the combo of Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad > Franklin’s Tower. Also the Dreams, Instrumental Illness and You Don’t Love Me encore (with an instrumental Will The Circle Be Unbroken). I was officially hooked and determined to see as many shows as I could.
2007 – Beacon (3.30.07): The only time I paid over face value for a ticket. Instead of feeding the scalpers, I took advantage of the Big House ticket offer (before they switched to auctions) and grabbed two 2nd row center seats as a 40th birthday present to myself. All proceeds over the ticket price were donated to the Big House. Warren was sick that night but I couldn’t tell. Many highlights, but Dreams with Derek taking the lead was something I’ll never forgot. The music of that song filled me up like no other, I could feel it all around me and questioned if it could “..surely be, the end of me!” Yeah! An amazing night….until
2009 – Beacon & Great Woods: the Beacon show was 3-26 – enough said. This and the Great Woods show are the two best shows I ever saw live. This was the peak of the band in my eyes.
9 Great Woods shows - all amazing! They loved to play up there. The parking lot scene alone was worth every trip
The rest is really gravy to me. I seemed to get something new and different for me at each show
2010 UP: Little Martha > Blue Sky Jam> Little Martha, The Sky Is Crying
2010 Orpheum run: Stormy Monday, Highway 61 Revisited, That’s What Love Will Make You Do
2011 Orpheum run: Eat A Peach set, Shakedown Street on 12/2
2012 Beacon: The last night when Gregg’s back kept him out of the show including the Hot ‘Lanta > Watchtower combo w/ Maurice Brown
2012 Hartford: Spanish Key & Ain’t No Love In The Heart of The City w/ Carlos Santana
2013 Beacon: Copperhead Road w/ Steve Earle
I wish I could have been there last night, but it wasn’t meant to be. What an amazing run it has been. I spent more time lurking and reading than posting on this site, so I’d like to thank everyone for sharing their thoughts, opinions, information, music over the 10 years I’ve been a member. It is appreciated more than you can know. Peace to all!
Cheers!
Bruce (whoknew)
Taking my mom to my first ABB show when I was 16 when Dickey was still in the band, since she was a longtime fan, and had never seen them, and I had not either.
Seeing the band all the times I did in between 1999-2010 in Philadelphia, PA, NJ, NYC, and one show at SPAC in the summer of '02.
Seeing the band with the dead with a friend at Penn State in the Bryce Jordan Center where we graduated from university at.
Seeing a Dickey Betts and Great Southern show while I was taking summer classes at Penn State.
Seeing DTB and mule multiple times including the original mule.
Seeing Gregg perform on New Year's eve at the Keswick.
All the shows I saw over the years with friends, some of who had never seen the band before.
[Edited on 10/29/2014 by The_Newt]
To me its less about a particular memory and more about the vibe. I always found the crowds at the Brothers shows so upbeat, happy and lose - really easy to approach and click with. I've been to countless Dead and Panic shows but it was never quite the same. Maybe it is that feeling of hospitality and family - The Allman Brothers Band have definitely been about family.
The other notable thing has been my lucky streak at shows, mostly with my buddy Jim. We've been to several where we somehow got a miracle ticket or finagled our way up front. Last March we were outside just before a Beacon show, and had a little run-in with NYC's finest, ahem... and I managed to shake them off. I was never worried though, I knew the spirits of the band would protect me!
I gave up on the ABB after Win, Lose or Draw. I think I bought WTW,CTO,DG but that was it. How could the band go from B&S to WLOD in such a short time? Well, we now know all the background reasons!
Anyway, you couldn't have paid me to listen to Brothers of the Road or Reach For The Sky - the music scene had moved on from the Allmans' dated sound.
However, I was excited to see that they were playing the old Rainbow Theatre in London in 1982 and got a ticket but was really disappointed by the show at the time, as I recall.
After that, I occasionally still listened to AFE, EAP, the DA anthology etc but that was all.
When they came back to London in 1991, I went along out of curiosity and not expecting vey much but I was blown away by the band which seemed to have a fresh enthusiasm from the addition of Hayes, Woody & Neel. I picked up Seven Turns, the Dreams box, Shades of Two Worlds and Where It All Begins when they were released. I was back "in"!
I went to Macon around '96 and, from somewhere or other, picked up the back editions of the then-primitive HTN! Maybe Kirk West threw them at me when I turned up unannounced at his house!!!
My first Beacon trip followed in 2000 and I've been back several times, most recently in 2009. Through this site, I've met up with other Peachheads from the UK and Europe and we still keep in regular contact. Our "Upcoming Gigs" thread is one of the longest on this board!
My one complaint is that the ABB has grievously ignored its fanbase outside of the US. Apart from Jaimoe and Marc, all the band members have played in the UK in the fairly recent past and DTB, TTB, Mule and GAF have been visitors of varying regularity. So why the heck did we not get at least one more ABB tour?!
Anyway, I'm so glad that I rediscovered the band and have had so much good clean fun in the last twenty-three years!
[Edited on 10/30/2014 by Shavian]
