TTB On the Bangor Waterfront

We've seen the Tedeschi Trucks Band many times and just love them.  They're unquestionably one of the best bands in the world and keep playing in new places.  We saw them in Waterville ME in April last year, and this year they were up in Maine again, playing the waterfront pavilion in Bangor on July 5 with Ziggy Marley opening.  Didn't take much for us to get tickets as soon as we could, and we got great seats in the 11th row, dead center.

An incredible stretch of rain swamped mid-coast Maine in June and continued into July, but cleared up right in time for the concert.  L went with us when David couldn't make it, and she had a good time, though she found it kind of loud, especially when Derek would turn up the volume.  It was a sunny drive up route 15 to get there, parked in the Pickering Square Garage on Broad Street, and then had a nice walk down the river, pausing for an early dinner of sandwiches and chips on a bench by some old cannons.

They wouldn't let us bring our plastic water bottles into the venue, even empty, but there was no line to get in and everybody was smiling.  And wow, have they re-done the venue since the last time we were there, in 2019 for the Willie Tour.  Back then it seemed like an amphitheater cobbled together in front of a big stage.  This time they still had the big stage, but had enclosed the seating area with nice, wood pavilions hosting luxury boxes up top and new bathrooms down below (it had been all porta-potties before).  The "lawn" had been a patch of dirt before, but now was lovely green turf.  The concessions seemed better laid out, Dave had had to wait in line 45 minutes the last time!

They had a VIP pavilion and a lounge area for us regular people.  And they were selling excellent beer, I got a Baxter Coastal Storm from the stand up in front where nobody else was going.  Funny that they didn't have the whole pavilion open though, the third section of seats and the lawn were empty and closed off, though they had apparently sold out the first two sections.  Must be supply chain difficulties.

Anyway, got to our great seats and it wasn't long before Ziggy Marley came on with a ten-piece band and played a great set.  He had a drummer and a percussionist, two electric guitarists, a bassist, two keyboard players, two backup singers, and he alternated between an electric in gaudy Jamaican colors and an acoustic.  He's Bob Marley's son and stuck to the reggae, though he's done a lot of children's music over his pretty long career.  Here's his setlist:

• Rebellion Rises
• Beach in Hawaii
• The Lucky One
• Be Free
• Personal Revolution
• Wild and Free
• Circle of Peace
• See Dem Fake Leaders
• Justice / Get Up, Stand Up / War
• We Are the People
• Love Is My Religion
• Is This Love
• Look Who's Dancing

It was a nice, long set, and the band was really excellent.  His backup singers, in Jamaican colors themselves, had some great dance moves, some smooth harmonies, and some great rap breaks.  The lead guitarist stood out for me, and they did the accomplished thing of making it seem like Ziggy was the one strumming the reggae beat through most of the songs, but it was actually the other guitarist, who was the funkiest one on stage.  Ziggy (and his impossibly long dreadlocks, they're down to his knees) concentrated on the vocals and was excellent himself.  It was all his songs with a few by his father mixed in.  I especially liked Wild and Free and the closing Look Who's Dancing.

I knew it was going to take a while to take down their set and to set up TTB, with their two drummers, risers for the vocalists and horn players, etc.  But they've been on tour together for a while and did this incredibly efficiently.  There had been room for dancing in our seats during the opening set, but the crowd (including customers of L's) filled in and the front two sections were packed ... I saw no empty seats.  Susan and Derek came out to wild applause, by now the fact that they are the band to see is out far and wide.

OMG, this was fantastic!  It was possibly the best TTB concert I've seen, and I've seen a lot of them.  Our seats were excellent and the sound was highest quality, though perhaps a little too trebly up front where we were.  All of the qualities that make this such a great band were there, and they played a long, long set:

• Hear My Dear
• Ain't That Something
• I Am the Moon
• Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
• Part of Me
• Bell Bottom Blues
• Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?
• Anyhow
• I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
• Do I Look Worried
• Midnight in Harlem
• Gravity
• Angel From Montgomery / Sugaree
• That Did It
• I Want More
• Beck's Bolero

This was a great mix of their own songs, opening with the exceptional Hear My Dear from their latest record.  They played two Derek and the Dominoes songs in succession, and some of the amazing blues covers they pick up, including the Stones' Heartbreaker and the closing instrumental from Jeff Beck.

At one point Susan forgot the words to the song she was singing (I forget which one).  Derek looked anxious and tried to prompt her with hand signals, which made her laugh.  But I swear it was less than 30 seconds before a roadie had printed out the words and laid them next to Susan's mike.  What efficiency!  She resumed.  On several songs, Susan switched from her normal teal guitar to a blonde Les Paul, which sounded excellent.

Perhaps the song of the set was Billy Taylor's revered I Wish I Knew, opened by Mike Mattison up front, and then batted around between Susan and the other vocalists.  The intro to Midnight In Harlem wasn't the one we've come to expect.  It went way into outer space, but you could tell what it was leading up to, and that song is so mellow, soulful, and lyrical when they get there.

I have to mention Alicia Chakour, who was as subtly powerful as ever.  And the musician of the night was ... no surprise ... Derek Trucks, who is one of the best and most consistent guitarists I've ever seen.  And as I've mentioned other times I've seen them, he conducts the band so well with little nods of his head, turns of his body, and movements of his eyes.  Susan can do this too, at one time she and Gabe were holding  a note together and without being obvious, he had his eye on her.  She had her eye on him too, and on a quick cut with her hand they transitioned seamlessly into the chorus.

And the set list was even more adventurous that you might think, because they mixed in a few bring-down-the-house horn breaks.  Not only did Kebbie Williams get his thing on, but Ephraim Owens took a great early break on trumpet, and near the end of the set Elizabeth Lea got out her mute and the three of them traded bars back and forth.  Great stuff!

I think the band may have been a little mixed up about where they were, understandable in the middle of a long tour.  There was a shoutout to "Boston Mass" somewhere in the middle, and at the end I swear Susan said that they always loved playing in Massachusetts.  Oh well.  They came back out after a long stretch of whoops and hollers and encored with Show Me.  As I say, it was a long, long set.  We all had a great time, we could have been in Oklahoma.

Not too much problem getting out of there and walking the quarter-mile or so back to the parking garage.  And believe it or not the traffic died out quickly and the roads were deserted almost all the way home.  Not like seeing a concert in the big city!