The Allman Brothers Band’s annual March Madness run closed on an unfortunate note last night as the group wound up performing without an Allman on stage at the Beacon Theatre. Founding member Gregg Allman left the stage in the middle of the second set on Saturday night and did not return. However the band didn’t let Allman’s injury stop them, providing fans a guest-heavy marathon finale. According to the group’s website, “Gregg Allman has bulging discs in his back that are normally under control. Last night (Saturday), he had a painful flare up 30 minutes before the end of the second set at the Beacon, which forced him to leave the stage.” Gregg Allman and Friends keyboardist Bruce Katz filled in for Gregg, whose absence was noted by Warren Haynes at the start of the show.
TMZ.com reported that Allman was briefly hospitalized on Saturday. Yet last night’s show went on as planned and the band made the best of the situation, with musical director Warren Haynes calling in a bevy of talented friends and singing many of Gregg’s vocal parts. Warren Haynes Band members Ron Johnson and Alicia Chakour helped out on River’s Gonna Rise in the first set. ABB family member Jimmy Hall came out for Statesboro Blues and She Caught The Katy during the opening stanza, while original bassist Berry Oakley’s son, Berry Oakley Jr., also sat in on Statesboro.
The guest appearances came at a fast and furious pace in the second set. Chakour and Johnson returned for the Soulshine opener. All three ABB drummers sat Soulshine out as Anton Fig of David Letterman’s house band stepped behind Butch Trucks’ kit. Later, for a take on Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower, the group was augmented by trumpeter Maurice Brown. Then, Col. Bruce Hampton and guitarist Oz Noy lent a hand on Spoonful. John Popper – who performed with the band on Saturday night as well – made another appearance on covers of Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad? and That’s What Love Will Make You Do as well as Blues Traveler’s Alone. This marked the ABB’s first-ever performance of the classic Traveler tune.
Set One: Blue Sky, Every Hungry Woman, Gamblers’s Roll, Les Brers, Statesboro Blues w/ Jimmy Hall and Berry Oakley Jr on bass, She Caught The Katy w/ Jimmy Hall, River’s Gonna Rise w/Ron Johnson and Alicia Chakour, Jessica
Set Two: Soulshine w/Alicia Chakour, Anton Fig and Ron Johnson w/o Marc Quinones and Jaimoe, Hotlanta, All Along The Watchtower w/ Maurice Brown on trumpet > Don’t Want You No More, Spoonful w/Col. Bruce Hampton and Oz Noy, Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad? > Alone w/John Popper, That’s What Love Will Make You Do W/John Popper, Maurice Brown, Jay Collins and Jimmy Hall, Dreams, Mountain Jam > Smokestack Lightning w/ Hook Herrera > Dazed and Confused > Mountain Jam
Encore: Soul Serenade > You Don’t Love Me w/ Herrera, Oakley Jr. and Junior Mack
[via AllmanBrothersBand.com and M. Matlick]
Last night’s marathon performance also featured a lengthy Mountain Jam that ventured into Smokestack Lightning (with Hook Herrera on harmonica) and Dazed and Confused before it was through. All in all, this marked the only show of the run without an acoustic segment.
In other ABB-related news, the lineup for the first annual Peach Music Festival, a three-day event set for August 10 – 12 in Scranton, Penn. is set to be announced at noon ET.
6 Responses
Interesting debate raging right now on the Allmans boards and in other places: did the Brothers do right by going on without Gregg? Curious to what HT readers think.
I’d go with yes, absolutely. The show must go on and the last night of the Beacon is a destination event for a number of folks all over the country. Heard it was a blowout and I heard from two attendees this morning saying it was the best show of the run by a wide margin.
Any thoughts from any attendees?
I think the band was in a no-win situation. What about the fans who traveled long distances and had hotel reservations? I’m sure they would’ve rather gotten a show without Gregg than no show.
Personally, I can’t wait to hear a recording of last night.
I was do disappointed… Traveled From Ft Worth just to see Gregg at the Beacon. It was part of my bucket list. I wish that I had gotten an e mail blast and given an option.
I’m a veteran of 54 ABB shows, dozens of them at the Beacon. When we heard just before showtime that Gregg would be out our first thought was that they ought to offer refunds for the tix like they did a few years back with the Hep C illness. But, once the show got underway, it was clear they were going to overcompensate. We described last night’s show as ‘noisy,’ and in an excellent way. They were ripping it, the guests were great, and they treated us to most of Eat a Peach (40 anniv.) in 3:40 playing time. We got the sense nobody wanted it to end.
Can’t replace Gregg’s presence on stage, nor his vocals on a good night (he’s been mailing it in on the organ for years now). Warren and others filled in the vocals well (You Don’t Love Me encore was off the hook, and it was great to hear John Popper again), and Bruce Katz did a great job making the organ sing. We missed Gregg. I don’t see ABB without an Allman on stage. But, we got a treat last night in any event. It was, in fact, among the very best of the 54 shows I’ve attended in the past 20 yrs.
It sounds like a cool deal to me…I might have been a bit disappointed to miss Greg, but I agree, the show must go on – and they seem to have made the best of it.
Heard Greg has issues not his back at all. He forgot alot of words, heard he has a big prescription drug problem. Go and get the help you need brother we need you around. Hope doc’s he seeing not just gonna ne another Michael or whitney.