The Allman Brothers Band :: 10.21.14 :: Beacon Theatre :: New York, NY

It’s easy to complain; these are cynical times. And as the Allman Brothers Band begins what are to be its final shows for its longest running lineup, there’s plenty of bitchin’ to go around:

The botched, drama-ridden shows announcement, tweaked once more by this week’s “no sit-ins” proclamation from Gregg and then the “did they invite Dickey or didn’t they” round of bullshit.

The anticlimax of March’s shows thanks to cancellations and ongoing concerns about Gregg’s health.

The barely-veiled annoyance by several band members – particularly Warren Haynes – about who decided what about the band’s finale and then who walked back from that decision.

The just-admit-it truth that these shows are no longer the potent spectacles of even a few years ago – that if Warren and Derek would never be so unprofessional as to mail it in, it’s hard to disguise that they’re more creatively satisfied by their other bands.

And hey, the fact that Brian Farmer isn’t here to cross the finish line with a band he loved and loyally supported.

And yet?

And yet…when entering this gilded music palace for the first of these six loaded shows, all I can think about is how damn much I’m going to miss this. It’s a heavy feeling – it casts… not a pall, but something a little extra over this reported last of Allman Brothers Band Beacon stands.

Facts is facts: The band has picked a good time to hang it up. First-show-of-the-run rust notwithstanding, Tuesday’s first set was slow, perfunctory and even boring at times, rescued by the little, tucked-in surprises – unexpected fury in the “Hot ‘Lanta” solos, a torrid Warren-Oteil duel in “Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home,” the gorgeous “Circle” coda in an otherwise old man-slow “You Don’t Love Me” – that together make these Beacon runs a good bet.

But that was the slim pickings to grab onto. No one needed “Just Another Rider,” and “True Gravity,” despite an airing of the more adventurously psychedelic expansion favored by the late 90s version of the band (versus the more closely-cropped version they’d been playing in March), still needed more time in rehearsal. If Night One was an indication, “send off,” not “nitpick,” is the way to go; thinking of these shows as anything more than a well-earned victory lap is likely a recipe for disappointment.

Despite some fine moments in the first set, the show never really took off in the Allman Brothers sense of the word until the mid-second-set “Spots of Time,” an oddly placed but exceptionally delivered Warren/Phil Lesh chestnut that chugged along, fueled by spidery guitar solos. From there it was goods: a “Revival” that gave the Beacon crowd a fire it desperately sought, and then a “Sky Is Crying” that was classic Warren, then Derek – coursing and gnarly, followed by exacting in its deconstructive blues.

How did Gregg sound? He sounded fine –much like the show itself, which was thin, but not without its triumphs. When the band finally arrived at “Liz Reed” – never perfunctory but with its several-times-peaking Derek solo and then Warren shredfest –It smacked of a band that has nothing left to reveal to us, but still so much to celebrate.

Fare thee well, Les Brers, and thanks for making it a trip.

Allman Brothers Band Beacon Theater, NYC, 10/21/2014

Set One: Don’t Want You No More > It’s Not My Cross to Bear, Hot ‘Lanta, Just Another Rider, Done Somebody Wrong, Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home, Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More, Come On In My Kitchen, True Gravity, You Don’t Love > Will The Circle Be Unbroken jam

Set Two: One Way Out, Stand Back, Spots of Time, Revival, The Sky Is Crying, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Encore: No One to Run With

JamBase | Towards The Finish Line

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