In a recent interview with Hidden Track, Allman Brothers Band founding member and drummer Butch Trucks touched on a number of topics, including such hot potatoes over whether this is the start of an Allman Brothers Band scale-back (yes and no), some hints on what’s to come at the Beacon, and of course, Moogis – a brand new piece of the Beacon experience that will bring streaming, near-high-definition video to Web subscribers to capture each night of the run live.
The lowdown on Moogis, named for what Butch’s infant son said when he tried to say “music,” is thus: A subscription buy in of $125 – the price went up $25 after Feb. 15 – gets you video and audio of Beacon 2009 through Moogis, and also vault material from Beacons and other ABB events past, as well as a social networking platform with other subscribers.
It’s something Trucks has been working on with a passion for some time now, and as he joined us on the phone, he was happy to stir the pot on a number of levels.
Good afternoon, I’m looking for Mr. Trucks.
This is Butch. Mr. Trucks is my daddy!
Roger that, sir. Butch, thanks for giving us the opportunity today. By all accounts, this year’s 15-show Beacon Theater run is going to be a blowout.
Ah, yup! It is going to be that. No question.
How go rehearsals and other preparations?
Everything is going fantastic. The only person I feel sorry for is our manager, because he’s got some major logistical coordination to do. Every single night is a different oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. In fact, we got a call three or four days ago. Out of the blue these people called us – and these are people that we worship, that we listen to – and they called and they asked if they could come play. I can’t tell you who, but I’ll say it this way: there’s not a whole lot of people out there who we look up to. And they’re coming, oh yeah. We already had another night put together with a similar type of group.
You can’t give us any indication?
No, come on, no. But it’s some of the top jazz players. Who they are you can guess, but we’re trying to keep things a surprise. If you’ve been to any of the Beacon shows before, you know that every night means surprises. I think this year the surprise level is going to take a quantum leap. All I can tell the guys at the Beacon is that they’d better be ready to push the roof back on after we’re done, ’cause we’re going to blow it off.
What do you think about the Beacon renovation? I was there last week for Leonard Cohen and it’s pretty stunning.
I still haven’t seen it yet! I was there about a month or two ago and there was still no rug down and all the chairs were down and there were boxes on the stage and I was like oh shit. But there’s a video we posted to Moogis of us doing a walk through — take a look at what it looked like then. From what I hear, it’s just absolutely amazing. When I was there I did think, oh my god, they’re not going to be ready for this. But people have a way of getting to work and getting it done. And hey, what I’m most excited about is I have my own bathroom. If I want to take a shower, I don’t go into the bathroom and walk in on Marc in his underwear. [laughs]
The Allman Brothers Run kicks off March 9, with 15 shows on tap through March 28, along with a rumored dazzling array of special guests. Read on at Glide’s Hidden Track to find out more about what’s happening in the Allman Brothers Band camp and their much anticipated 40th anniversary.
