Monday's Earful: The Allman Brothers Band Residency Redux

By: David Schultz

Last Thursday, The Allman Brothers Band kicked off their 2010 residency at The United Palace. Like most years, the residency overlaps with the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. However, the core fans of the Allmans likely have no interest in a music industry boondoggle light on classic rock. However, your humble narrator is down in Austin for the week, thus thoughts on prior residencies will have to suffice this week. Last year's run at the Beacon Theater marked the band's 20th anniversary at the venue. Amongst my thoughts back then:

If Sergio Leone were to make The Good, The Bad & The Ugly in modern times, Eli Wallach would tell Clint Eastwood that there are two types of people in this world: those who know that The Allman Brothers Band residency is a sacred event and those who are too ignorant to know better. . . .

As with most years, the Allmans' invasion of the Beacon sounded a testosterone laden siren call. Women who were looking for slightly overweight, highly intoxicated men in their forties or fifties with fading hairlines, vintage tie-dyes and a love of proper classic rock could have rummaged the Beacon’s aisles like a sale at Filene’s Basement. While the residency attracted its fair share of female guests, the shows were likely the only ones in recent memory where the women could waltz by a bathroom line of nearly a hundred guys and walk right into a nearly vacant ladies room. . . .

Overshadowing the elder Allman as well as the rest of the band, Derek Trucks’ presence on stage no longer needs to be qualified by facts like “miraculous guitar prodigy” or “Butch’s nephew.” Trucks has matured and developed into a force of nature and in trading licks at the Beacon with the likes of Eric Clapton, Trey Anastasio and Buddy Guy, edged his way onto the mantle of this generation’s preeminent guitarists. At every show, Trucks and Warren Haynes played off each other so compatibly that it hardly mattered what song they were playing, they crafted something new and entertaining at every turn.  . . .

Over the course of 15 shows in a three week span, the Allman Brothers Band engaged in a little rock and roll revivalism that went beyond reawakening interest in the Southern rock stalwarts back catalog. By showcasing the blues as a vital and living entity, the Allmans recharged and enlivened interest in the whole genre. If you managed to attend more than one show and not feel the need to acquire some old blues recordings, you weren’t paying close enough attention.

For the entire article on the 2009 residency, click here. Do likewise for coverage of the 2007 and 2006 residencies. Don't strain yourself looking for 2008: it's lumped in with articles on the 1994 World Series and Michael Jackson's This Is It shows.