Guest Book

"And that Music sounds as good as ever." Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I would have to disagree with you Philly... This is an article that ran in the tonequest report ( an newsletter centered around guitar tone & equipment) after the socalled magic beacon run of 2009... " So perhaps you too can imagine our surprise when we traveled to the historic Beacon Theatre in New York for a night with the Allman Brothers Band featuring Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes filling in for Duane and Dickey. Yes, the crowd was predictably up for this, the next to last night of a two week run, especially given an appearance by Eric Clapton in celebration of the band's 40th anniversary. Accompanied by El Riverhorse, we found our excellent seats and the Bass Ale station, then hung out people watching until the lights finally dimmed, signaling the start of the show. The band kicked it off and within a minute or two we were trading frowns as the Beacon crowd lustily cheered. No exchange of words was necessary-we were both frowning because the guitars sounded curiously lame-not just a little lame, or not quite as good as the could have... No, they sounded absolutely lame-with thin, trebly and way too distorted weenie tones completely void of the robust mids, sweet prescence, bold musical clarity and vocal character that you would expect crew like this to have dialed in - especially after having played the same venue for over two weeks straight, and nearly 200 times since 1989. Or was that the problem? We agreed on the way back downtown in the cab that Duane would never have been down with such 'tribute band' tone, and as for Dickey, if you're an Allman Brothers fan and you haven't seen Dickey Betts and Great Southern, go. We've seen them no less than three times in as many years, most recently at Copper Mountain, and all we can say is Dickey & Co. deliver the goods all day in every way with the passion, power, emotion and tone that originally put the Allman Brothers Band on the map. And for that, Dickey gets the cover of this edition, with respect." "he (Eric Clapton) provided a much-needed and welcome boost throught the last seven songs, and hearing him play on classics like "Dreams" was a rare treat. Still, we left the Beacon dumbfounded by how two guitarists whom we knew to be so much better could slip into the painfully cliched tone too often typified by humbucking pickups, high-gain amps and mediocre production- a dismal substitute for the melodic guitar tones first created by Duane & Dickey." "We've no axe to grind here, nor did we walk into the Beacon Theatre with mindset of music critics poised to pounce. The point is, and it is a significant point indeed... there is an unseen art to creating live sound with stellar results, and it seems to us that the responsibility for rekindling one of the greatest bands in history deserves to be undertaken with care and respect. The original Allman Brothers Band excelled as a potent ensemble whose magnificent sound was expressed so uniquely through the eloquently vocal tone of Duane and Dickey's guitars, which were never obscured or compromised behind a gritty veil of distortion. The 'modern' version of the band we experienced could be compared to listening to an MP3 on an Ipod through ear buds versus an LP played on tube hi-fi. Did the audience care? Of course not, but let's not kid ourselves... In 2009 'concert' have de-volved into grossly over-hyped and expensive events where on America's uber-boomer class can afford the price of admission. Most of these people don't give a s--t about the music... it's all about the party... the event...and bragging rights the morning after. On June 26, 1971 the Allman Brothers took the stage at the Fillmore East at 2:30 a.m. and walked off well past sunrise as the stunned audience reverently passed through the doors on Second Avenue in silence, too spent to raise their hands in applause. As Duane said, "god-dam!It's like leaving church." No, we will never experience any of this again- the Allman Brothers closing the Fillmore... Jimi Hendrix and Band of Gypsies on New Years Ever, 1970... the Stones playing the Fox Theater in Atlanta on their 'small tour'... Well, we've still got Jeff Beck, God bless 'im. " But if you're bold enough to cash checks on such memories, do the work. 'Contemporary' interpretations of classic rock do not absolve the artists from playing with passion, soul, emotion and tone."