{"id":3927,"date":"2011-03-14T06:56:35","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T14:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=3927"},"modified":"2011-03-14T06:56:35","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T14:56:35","slug":"fillmore-east-at-the-beacon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2011\/03\/14\/fillmore-east-at-the-beacon\/","title":{"rendered":"Fillmore East At The Beacon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wake up mama, turn your lamp down low…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you went to college in the early seventies, you know these words by heart.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s Gregg Allman’s opening line from the finest concert album of all time, "Live At Fillmore East".\u00c2\u00a0 And last night, the band performed that album from start to finish, I’d say note for note, but the Allmans are known for nothing if not improvisation.<\/p>\n

The dressing rooms at the Beacon are stacked.<\/p>\n

We started on top with Derek and Butch.\u00c2\u00a0 Trucks that is.\u00c2\u00a0 Derek had Duane’s Gold Top around his neck, in honor of the night’s festivities.\u00c2\u00a0 Butch told us the vagaries of running Moogis, the inability of some fans to even remember their own e-mail addresses, and then Warren Haynes strode in next door.\u00c2\u00a0 Like this was a job.\u00c2\u00a0 Right from the street to the stage.<\/p>\n

And after a peek in on Gregg we took our seats.<\/p>\n

Well, first we admired the edifice.\u00c2\u00a0 In an era where everybody’s cutting corners Jim Dolan spared no expense.\u00c2\u00a0 He refurbished the place into a palace.\u00c2\u00a0 You feel that someone actually respects music.\u00c2\u00a0 And the vibe resembled nothing so much as that venue in the East Village, that heart of rock and roll that’s no longer beating but was the epicenter of the scene forty years ago, the Fillmore East.<\/p>\n

And the fans are milling, and ultimately sitting, then the band hits the stage and breaks into those opening notes and when Gregg starts to sing EVERYBODY SINGS ALONG!\u00c2\u00a0 It was like we were in church.\u00c2\u00a0 A church you needed a secret password to enter, one that didn’t exclude people, but just required them to be in the know.<\/p>\n

The band really locked in on "Elizabeth Reed".\u00c2\u00a0 Noted as "Liz Reed" on the set list.\u00c2\u00a0 You remember the story, right?\u00c2\u00a0 Of how it was a headstone in a graveyard down south?\u00c2\u00a0 And as the twin guitarists waxed and wailed something was clear, we were listening to MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 To paraphrase Robert Plant, YOU REMEMBER MUSIC, right?<\/p>\n

Robert spoke of laughter.\u00c2\u00a0 And I didn’t hear any ha-ha’s, but everyone had a smile on their face, because of the experience.<\/p>\n

There’s been all this horseshit written that the Grateful Dead broke big because they let people tape, that they were fan-friendly.\u00c2\u00a0 No, the real reason the Dead were gigantic was the MUSIC!<\/p>\n

They were always good, but when they finally got their act down on wax, with "Workingman’s Dead" and "American Beauty", the masses clued in and there was no stopping the juggernaut of an act that was about PLAYING!<\/p>\n

You wonder why this business is in the shitter?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about playing anymore, it’s not about music, it’s about SHOW!\u00c2\u00a0 As in SHOW BUSINESS!\u00c2\u00a0 And if you focus first on business, the gig has got no SOUL!\u00c2\u00a0 And without soul, you ain’t got shit.<\/p>\n

It’s not about hearing the hit.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t until ’73 that the Allmans even had a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 But they were legendary and selling out stadiums before that.\u00c2\u00a0 Because of the MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 You went with your buddies, got stoned and melted with the sound.<\/p>\n

The Allmans were tighter than the Dead.\u00c2\u00a0 And Gregg could sing better.\u00c2\u00a0 Which may be why they were bigger.\u00c2\u00a0 But the Dead had a warm vibe, Jerry had charisma, whereas the Allmans were all about the work.\u00c2\u00a0 They hit no wrong notes, they were a freight train that came roaring through town, you ran down to the tracks, you didn’t want to miss it.<\/p>\n

People can you feel it, love is everywhere<\/span><\/p>\n

I got turned on to the Allmans in Dave McCormick’s dorm room at Middlebury College.\u00c2\u00a0 Dave played three records over and over again.\u00c2\u00a0 "Layla", "In Search Of The Lost Chord" and "Idlewild South".\u00c2\u00a0 We’d roll a doobie, before that band broke big and we even called it that, turn out the lights and watch the zilch drip flame into a bucket of water, energized by the music.<\/p>\n

You’ve got to know, at this point "Midnight Rider" wasn’t even a staple!\u00c2\u00a0 No one knew it.\u00c2\u00a0 We discovered it as part of the album.\u00c2\u00a0 As the third track on the first side.<\/p>\n

But as much as we loved "Idlewild South", we were not prepared for "Fillmore East".\u00c2\u00a0 Which came after the venue was closed by the soon to be legendary southern rock band.\u00c2\u00a0 Bill Graham knew what we did not.\u00c2\u00a0 Outsiders were surprised that this yet to break act closed the hall, but Bill was right.<\/p>\n

And eventually I went back to the beginning, I bought the debut, with the killer version of "Trouble No More", which the band played last night.<\/p>\n

But the track I needed to experience, and filling the whole fourth side it was an experience, was "Whipping Post".<\/p>\n

I’ve been run down, I’ve been lied to<\/span><\/p>\n

All these years later the story of abandonment made sense in a way it did not back at Middlebury.\u00c2\u00a0 But the sound had been updated too.\u00c2\u00a0 Derek wasn’t just channeling Duane, he was adding his own spin.<\/p>\n

And eventually David Hidalgo of Los Lobos came out to wail too.<\/p>\n

And when the band settled into the drum solo it became painfully clear…this show was gonna end.<\/p>\n

But the experience wasn’t over.\u00c2\u00a0 This was show 191, by time they’re done later this month it will be 201 sold out shows at the Beacon, there’s a plaque backstage, with rolling digits counting the gigs.<\/p>\n

You can go too.<\/p>\n

And it’s best at the Beacon.<\/p>\n

But it’s good everywhere.<\/p>\n

Because it’s music.<\/p>\n

This is how it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 People didn’t want to be stars, they wanted to be musicians.\u00c2\u00a0 They practiced and gigged and practiced and ultimately got good enough to gain acclaim.\u00c2\u00a0 They got record deals and lost them, they drove in vans with bald tires, but when that engine was finally tuned, and all eight cylinders were humming, the sound was undeniable.\u00c2\u00a0 People came from far and wide to bask in the music, to partake in the elixir.<\/p>\n

No one was fake.\u00c2\u00a0 There were no hard drives, no auto-tune.\u00c2\u00a0 You had to be able to sing and play.<\/p>\n

And these cats did it so well that money started raining down upon them in prodigious amounts.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember that picture in "Rolling Stone" with all the Allmans’ guitars belted into the airplane seat.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, the axes had their own ticket, they were just that important, the band didn’t want to give United a chance to break their guitars.<\/p>\n

And there was booze and drugs, more women than anyone but Gene Simmons, who came after, could remember.\u00c2\u00a0 It was pure.<\/p>\n

You want to know how we know?<\/p>\n

Because most of the acts from back then are broke.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve still got to work to survive.\u00c2\u00a0 Tickets were under five bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 Record royalties were miniscule.\u00c2\u00a0 It was primarily about the lifestyle.<\/p>\n

And the audience was an integral part of that lifestyle.\u00c2\u00a0 Without the audience you had nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t about perfecting the sound on record so much as plugging in on stage and giving it your all, feeding off those in attendance, trying to blow the roof off the joint.<\/p>\n

There are no short cuts.<\/p>\n

You can make a record with Dr. Luke, but that doesn’t mean anybody wants to see you live.<\/p>\n

You can win "American Idol" and be famous, but so is Snooki, and she can’t sing, she’s got no talent whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Don’t confuse fame with talent.\u00c2\u00a0 Talent is honed.\u00c2\u00a0 Over years.\u00c2\u00a0 When no one is looking.\u00c2\u00a0 When your parents tell you to go to school and your girlfriend tells you you’re a shithead.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody believes in you but yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 But your belief is so strong that you can’t give up. Then people you never knew suddenly believe you’re God.<\/p>\n

Yup, that’s how it works.<\/p>\n

I’d like to tell you there’s a star in the Allman Brothers Band, but that would be wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 Every player on stage is an integral part.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about preening, but playing.<\/p>\n

And it’s about playing once again.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a host of acts most people have never heard of selling out clubs and theatres to dedicated fans who go to every gig, which they can afford to because tickets are so cheap.<\/p>\n

This is our only way out.<\/p>\n

It’s not about Jimmy Iovine wearing Beats headphones on "American Idol", it’s not about the penumbra, it’s about the CORE!<\/p>\n

Last night the Allman Brothers tied me to the whipping post.<\/p>\n

And it felt so GOOD!<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wake up mama, turn your lamp down low… If you went to college in the early seventies, you know these words by heart.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s Gregg Allman’s opening line from the finest concert album of all time, "Live At Fillmore East".\u00c2\u00a0 And last night, the band performed that album from start to finish, I’d say note […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-11l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3927"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3929,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927\/revisions\/3929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}