San Francisco Blog

Michael Taffet

Last night, Oakland's beautifully-restored Fox Theater was packed with child-like adults feeling the Southern Pride, California-style. These weren't necessarily flower children, but there is something odd about watching 60-somethings with fat joints tapping away on their Blackberrys, pushing past you to hug someone they haven't seen since the last show, and agreeing en masse that "It's all good." There was a special taping section in the crowd, too, where fans with tall poles holding high-end mikes stood, looking like they were equally capable of detecting outer-space alien activity as they were of recording a rock band. But, hey, it's all good!

The Allman Bothers Band started their show with a backdrop visual announcing the performance was "Dedicated to a brother." This segued into a slide montage featuring photos of Duane Allman and other associates of the band who have left this mortal coil. The group accompanied these visuals with their medley of "Don't Want You No More" and "It's Not My Cross To Bear" and they sounded like the old Allmans, strong and soulful.

Original members Gregg Allman, Jaimoe, and Butch Trucks now are joined by Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes on guitars, Oteil Burbidge on bass, and percussionist Marc Quiñones. But with the band comprising only one Allman and the father and nephew Trucks - shouldn't they be the Trucks Family Band now? Okay, probably not, but Derek Trucks is the finest musician in the group at this point. He plays with a style that owes much to Duane Allman, and while he and Haynes play many of Duane's licks verbatim, Derek Trucks is able to expand and expound on that template. His playing even took my mind off of how the fans' Dead-style twirly dancing involves a lot of side-to-side motion and constant bumping into people, especially me! Can't these boogiers be polite like punks and just jump straight up and down? But, I digress.

The band played an assortment of their classics - extended versions of "Dreams," "Jessica," and "Don't Keep Me Wonderin`" were some standouts - along with four tunes lead by Warren Haynes that the crowd loved but weren't my style so much. Haynes is prone to doing that white-guy-playing-the-blues thing of holding a note too long while his eyes are pinched shut into a face that makes me think of a chimp about to achieve satori. At least they had a trippy light show going in the background--although it was digital and not proper old school liquid lights.

The band closed with a rousing version of "Mountain Jam" and returned for only one encore, but I reckon that was enough, as they'd played for well over three hours by then. The house lights rose, but much of the crowd remained for several minutes, still cheering. It was all good!

Critics' notebook:

Personal bias: My friends and I used to visit Duane Allman's and Berry Oakley's graves whenever we traveled through Macon, Georgia. And I still play those Allman Brothers records regularly when my wife is out of the house.