It's hard to describe how good TTB is. On the other hand, it's not that hard. They have a 12-piece band, everyone plays and/or sings remarkably well, their arrangements and originals are excellent and allow each of them to have their moments and play to their strengths, and the band has a few world-class talents. Susan Tedeschi has an alto blues voice to die for, to my mind bettering Bonnie Raitt, Rachel Price, or whomever. And Derek Trucks is the best electric blues guitarist I've ever seen. Also, their ensemble singing, adding the complex backup arrangements of Mike Mattison, Alecia Chakour, and Mark Rivers to Tedeschi's lead, is unexcelled. And that's not to mention ...
We'd been lucky enough to see the Tedeschi Trucks Band 10 times, but the last two times we've seen Susan and Derek have not been with the full band, due to COVID and its continuing influence. In the meantime, J.J. Johnson has left the band and they've picked up a new drummer, Isaac Eady. They've also recently released a fine suite of albums titled I Am the Moon, on a theme which percolated among the members during the pandemic times. The band announced that they'd be back to their customary late-Fall Boston stand this year (Susan's a Massachusetts girl of course, and we were surprised to learn from her that Alecia is too), and we were more than eager to go see them again.
Tempering that of course, was the fact that the Orpheum sucks for the audience. It's crowded, dirty, run-down, and we've encountered some nasty staff there, though to their credit they cleaned it as well as possible and had friendly staff this November 30th. We only got tickets to one of the nights, but really would love to see them every night if we didn't have to brave the Orpheum. And perhaps the most important thing, they sound excellent there and if you get a center seat (woe to the people on the edges, who are not able to see the whole band!?!) the sound will rock your soul.
That Wednesday was a nasty weather day, with driving, pouring rain and a chilly, intense wind. We found our way to a parking garage downtown at about 5:00 and met Dave, getting off from work, at Dubliners (whilom Kinsale's) in Center Plaza. Had an average Irish pub meal, dropped Dave's bag off back at the car, and then pushed uphill through the rain to Hamilton Place. Checked out the merch (nice t-shirt and poster of the old State House, but we didn't get any), found our places in the fifth row of the balcony, dead center, and chilled with a beer for a bit. The audience filled in late, and was mostly middle-aged but incredibly enthusiastic. I heard more shouts, whistles, and woohs than at any rock/blues concert, at times they were a little over the top. I mean, if you're excited that Alecia is singing a verse and you scream all through it, she might as well not have sung anything, ya know?
Anyway, this was the second night of their Orpheum stand. They'd done all of the first disc of their 4-disc suite on Tuesday, and we were not surprised when they covered a few songs from the other discs that night, after opening with ... well, here's the first set:
- Anyhow
- Playing With My Emotions
- Ain't That Something
- Emmaline
- Keep On Growing (Derek and the Dominos)
- Done Somebody Wrong (Elmore James)
- La Di Da
- Whiskey Legs
Wow, where do I start? These were some of my favorite TTB songs, including the great Anyhow (on which they had some sound balance problems, quickly fixed). The singing on Keep On Growing was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes (luckily I had my mask on). Emmaline is just a precious, soft song, sung by Mike up front with his acoustic guitar (of course, a lot of middle-aged people shouted all through it, but I've been known to be over-enthusiastic myself at times). Done Somebody Wrong is one of my favorite songs ever. Susan introduced their new song La Di Da (which shows off their talent at arrangement) as being about her son going off to college, and it brought a tear to my eye too! Or maybe it was everything being soaked from the rain. And Whiskey Legs is a great rocker.
I should say that they've changed their stage setup a bit. Brandon on bass is now over to the right at the front of the stage, and they've split the horns off to a separate riser back behind Gabe on the left, whom they've moved up front also. The drummers are arranged kind of on the quarter-axis, half facing each other and half facing the rest of the band. And let me say that they were incredible! Eady is a fantastic addition and as excellent as the rest of the band is, they were the sound of the night as far as I'm concerned. great stuff.
OK, time to gush over what we'd just seen and to try to dry off a bit more. Getting to the shit-hole Orpheum and then squeezing through the crowded lobbies and into those tiny seats was a real pain in the ass. I'm maybe getting a little too old for rock concerts. But OMG, when that magic band starts playing, everything else just flies away! If you ever have a chance to see TTB, gentle reader, do it.
Long line for the bathrooms and then no sense getting back in line for another expensive beer. The set break was a little longer than you might hope, but eventually they came back out and lit into it again:
- Last Night In the Rain
- Outside Woman Blues (Blind Joe Reynolds)
- Part of Me
- Where Are My Friends?
- Midnight In Harlem
- Learn How to Love
- Angel From Montgomery/Sugaree (Prine/Garcia)
- How Blue Can You Get? (B.B. King)
- I Want More
- Soul Sacrifice (Santana)
Holy shit! We've seen them do the long jam into and then the wonderfully paced Midnight In Harlem several times, but this was perhaps the best we've seen, especially with Kebbi Williams doing a space-age sax solo in the intro and Derek searing the edges of the world. Fantastic, basic blues songs in Learn How To Love and How Blue Can You Get? And the climax of the night was the long, soulful, everyone sing-along (or scream if you like) mashup of I Want More and Soul Sacrifice. Dave actually said to me, "They have to be the best band around," just don't tell Bobby or Phil that!
Susan did her customary Boston shout-outs to the city and her family, and then some of us had a little time to cool off. Some other people were still clapping, whistling, and shouting, it was quite an experience! Then they came back out and did Space Captain (Matthew Moore) for an encore, waved again, and took off. They have two more nights to go in their Boston stand, and I'm sure they'll be just as good.
The rain had stopped by the time we managed to navigate through the crush out of there. This is not the place you want to be when there's a fire, but that's old Boston for you. Chilly walk down to Arch Street, and then a pretty quick ride to drop Dave in Quincy and then get back home. Again, not the most mellow evening but just a fantastic blues rock show, one of the best ever, and we hope we'll have a chance to do it again!
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