TTB Way Up in Maine

We're always ready to go see the Tedeschi Trucks Band, and we were psyched when they announced a Spring swing through New England.  They seemed to be concentrating on small theaters this time and were going to play the Cabot in Beverley.  But by the time they had completed a pre-sale for the Cabot Club and for their own fan club (which also costs) there were just some corner balcony seats available!  But we saw they were then going up to Maine and so we went with Plan B and got seats (very expensive but 4th row center balcony) at the Waterville Opera House for April 15th.

I know there are plenty of great music fans up in Maine and they must have been delighted to have one of the best bands in the world show up in Waterville, which is kind of halfway between Augusta and Bangor (Colby College is in Waterville).  The Opera House is actually in the same building as City Hall, upstairs!  They played Portland the next night and then were off to Pennsylvania or something.

Dave had Thursday and Friday off (as well as Monday, Patriots' Day) and so we drove up to Sedgwick on Thursday, where the construction site that used to be (and will be again) our house was a little less muddy and more welcoming then the last time we were up.  Friday was a beautiful day and we had a great drive cross-country through farmland to Waterville, though a cat standing in the middle of the road tried to scare us off at one point.  We crossed into downtown by the lovely Ticonic Falls, which were raging with the water that's everywhere this early Spring.

Got a great parking space right across from the Opera House/City Hall and had a dinner that couldn't be beat at the Silver Street Tavern.  Then we followed the sudden crush into the second floor, picked up our tickets at the Will Call table, got drinks in adult sippy cups (they didn't want us to spill them), and sat down in the balcony to admire the Opera House, which featured plentiful swoops and flourishes and very small seats.

Great stuff and an electric sense of anticipation, but I was a bit disappointed to see that they weren't set up for the full band, just for the "Fireside" version.  Susan later commented that they couldn't have fit the full band on the tiny stage there, but I think they could have, they've done some squeezing in the past.  In Waterville they were just Susan and Derek, Gabe in his nest of keyboards, Falcon with an average-sized drum kit in the back, Brandon Boone on bass next to Susan, and Mike Mattison on vocals and acoustic far right.  Can't argue with that, especially when they put on a show like they did that night!

This was truly an excellent show.  The setlist was a little quirky/obscure but that was great.  Highlights were Made Up Mind, Walk On Gilded Splinters, and a long Angel From Montgomery/Sugaree.  Susan was having a great night on vocals and also on guitar, she ripped off a number of great leads, more than usual.  Derek is a force of nature of course, watching his effortless professionalism is almost as good as hearing the amazing stuff he plays on slide and with his fingers.  At one point they were deep into a jam and a subtle nod to Gabe, a slow turn, and then a mouthed "one two three" to Mike brought them out of it and back into the verse so smoothly ... this was magic.

• Set 1:
• Don't Drift Away
• Made Up Mind
• It's So Heavy
• Gin House Blues
• Keep On Growing
• Just as Strange
• Just Won't Burn
• Anyhow
• Key to the Highway

• Set 2:
• I Walk on Guilded Splinters (Dr. John)
• Misunderstood
• Everybody's Got to Change Sometime (Taj Mahal)
• Whiskey Legs
• Laugh About It
• The Feeling Music Brings
• Outside Woman Blues
• Angel From Montgomery / Sugaree
• How Blue Can You Get?

• Encore:
• Get What You Deserve

But I'll have to say the player of the night was Tyler Greenwell, just rocking the Opera House.  The sound was surprisingly good for a not-high-ceilinged hall and they got the sound on the drums just right, it was awesome.  And of course Susan and Derek play some fine-sounding instruments too!

They played a good three-hour concert with a small set break, it was almost exactly 11 when they ended.  Needless to say, the crowd in Waterville loved them.  Though the median age was perhaps a little higher than at most TTB concerts we've attended and very few people stood through the whole thing, the crowd was raging.  A funny thing they do at the Opera House is just as the show starts, they let people up into the orchestra pit.  When they did that this time the pit was full within a half a second!  They also encouraged people to dance around the edges of the balcony, very different than most concerts.  You don't get one of the best bands in the world playing the Waterville Opera House every day.

Made our way downstairs, back to the car, and on the road East in no time.  This time no cats and we made it back to Sedgwick in about 90 minutes ... not bad!