Allman Bros.

Last Saturday, I went to what you might call an adult concert. That would mean a concert where the majority of audience members, like me, were adults. The Allman Brothers Band was a staple of my dorm room listening in the bid 1970's, and with original members still making up half the band (one brother died in the 70's, running his motorcycle into a truck, which did not, in fact, lead to the album name of Eat A Peach. The story I had been told was that Duane Allman crashed into a peach truck, but it was actually a lumber truck. Read the Wikipedia article if you want the real story) there was no kind of kid vibe on stage.

Don't worry, there was still plenty of familiar concert smell filling the Beacon Theater on New York's Upper West Side. I'd last been to the Beacon in the mid 80's, when I saw The Smiths play there. The place was kind of a pit then, and I remember the concert mostly because the people in the front were so crazy that they wouldn't just stand up, they had to stand on the armrests of their chairs, forcing everyone behind them to do the same if they wanted to see. Ronnie and I tried mightily to overcome this, but finally decided to leave, only to find that you could see perfectly well by sitting at the back of the orchestra.

There was no standing on armrests, and the theater was beautifully renovated (or possibly a new interior was simply invented. Maybe it had always been a pit until now). I went with Allman concert veterans, who assured me that for an 8:00 show, that 8:25 was the correct time to arrive. We got to the theater, got us some drinks, and entered at 8:22, just as the band was getting ready to take the stage.

Great show. Terrific guitar work, vocals, and drumming by the 2 drummers and 1 percussionist (at one point the bass player started playing the drum kit and one of the drummers started on a kettle drum of some sort, so it was 4 drummers total). There was also a funky light show on the screen behind the band. During intermission, we went backstage and chatted with the guys who did the light show, which was very cool.

By this time, it was clear that one of the reasons that people weren't standing on the armrests is that they were too inebriated to do so. I don't remember a bar at the old version of the Beacon. I like this version better.

All in all, it was a first class show. I would definitely go to other concerts there if I lived less than 100 miles away.