Guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks lower themselves gently into the Allman Brothers’ final farewell at New York’s Beacon Theatre on 28 October 2014, conscious that they are beginning a four-and-a-half-hour show. After the sweet instrumental Little Martha and an abridged four-minute Mountain Jam (an eighth of the length the band could muster back in the day) they launch into track one, side one of the band’s self-titled 1969 debut, Don’t Want You No More, and the show is up and running.
Haynes and Trucks effortlessly recreate the searing guitar lines that Duane Allman and Dickey Betts made the cornerstone of the band’s sound. The other elements, like the dual drummer plus percussionist that kept up a rolling thunder behind the guitars and Gregg Allman’s plaintive keyboards and vocals, are still intact.
The show is heavy on the Duane-era of the band and includes Gregg’s Ain’t Wasting Time No More which he wrote for his brother after his death. And midway through a “proper” 20-minute Mountain Jam they segue into Will The Circle Be Unbroken which they played at Duane’s funeral. It’s left to Haynes to pay tribute to Dickey Betts (who left the band in 2000) by singing Blue Sky.
The only relatively recent song is The High Cost Of Low Living from 2003’s Hittin’ The Note. After a rousing 16-minute Whipping Post, the normally taciturn Gregg gives a short but eloquent speech before leading the band into the first song they ever played together – Muddy Waters’ Trouble No More.
