People, can you hear it? – Allman Brothers Band at the Greek, Sept. 7, 2003

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LAWeekly – Sept. 25, 2003

ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
at the Greek Theater, September 7

There once was a fantastic used-record store near Vermont and Hollywood where you could go in midday and get schooled in music by the owner and employees in the friendliest of ways. My favorite lesson ever there was when I inquired about how to get into the Allman Brothers Band, and within minutes Mike the Second-in-Command was playing “Midnight Rider” on the PA and retrieving the Allmans’ 1972 Eat a Peach from the bins. Opening the album’s jacket to reveal James Flournoy Holmes’ magnificent Magic Markered magic-mushroom idyllscape centerfold, Mike smiled and asked, “Now, wouldn’t you like to live there?” Why yes I would, I said, and so I bought the record for the art . . . and kept it for the music.

A lot of other people still wanna live there, a fact made immediately evident tonight when the assembled “Peach Corps” — size XXXL kissing cousins to the Deadheads — began cheering, smoking and awkwardly dancing the moment the band charged into the gospel-funk rave-up “Revival” and the giant computer-generated psilocybin on the screens behind the band started to rotate and glow. “People can you hear it/Love is everywhere,” sang Gregg Allman in that remarkable biker-soul voice of his, surely one of America’s grandest treasures. Still leading the band from behind his Hammond organ, Gregg sang beautifully, especially on “Old Before My Time,” an aching and deeply moving new ballad. A rendition of the jazztacular instrumental “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” was simply staggering. Some aspects of the current ensemble were iffier: While Butch Trucks’ 22-year-old nephew Derek is the frighteningly talented guitar virtuoso that everybody sez he is, guitarist/singer Warren Haynes (whose day job is leading the band Gov’t Mule) holds the whole band back by hitting (and then endlessly holding) the same egregious crowd-pleasing notes on most every solo. And there it is: The present ABB is too competent, too sleek, too . . . CGI. Which is nuts, given that the Allmans, of all people, should know the value of the simple Magic Marker. (Jay Babcock)

Published by Jay Babcock

I am an independent writer and editor based in Tucson, Arizona. In 2023: I publish an email newsletter called LANDLINE = https://jaybabcock.substack.com Previously: I co-founded and edited Arthur Magazine (2002-2008, 2012-13) and curated the three Arthur music festival events (Arthurfest, ArthurBall, and Arthur Nights) (2005-6). Prior to that I was a district office staffer for Congressman Henry A. Waxman, a DJ at Silver Lake pirate radio station KBLT, a copy editor at Larry Flynt Publications, an editor at Mean magazine, and a freelance journalist contributing work to LAWeekly, Mojo, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Vibe, Rap Pages, Grand Royal and many other print and online outlets. An extended piece I wrote on Fela Kuti was selected for the Da Capo Best Music Writing 2000 anthology. In 2006, I was somehow listed in the Music section of Los Angeles Magazine's annual "Power" issue. In 2007-8, I produced a blog called "Nature Trumps," about the L.A. River. From 2010 to 2021, I lived in rural wilderness in Joshua Tree, Ca.

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