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By the time I finally saw The Allman Brothers Band I had heard the band plenty. My bandmate JP* was a big fan; he played their CD’s for me relentlessly in a failed attempt to get me into the band. I don’t know why I wasn’t a fan of The Allman Brothers, they were everything I liked about music – great melodies, fantastic vocals, long interesting jams, inspired guitar harmonies, lots of great rhythms courtesy of the three(!) drummers in the group, not to mention the fact that my favourite local band (Freeway Band) sounded an awful lot like the Allman’s whenever an extended guitar break came around – but somehow they just didn’t get me (or more accurately: I didn’t get them).
That all changed on August 11th, 1993 when I saw the band in the Kingswood Amphitheatre at Canada’s Wonderland. Heck, this might have been my first time seeing anyone at Kingswood, which was a great little venue that seemed to completely dry up when the Molson Amphitheatre opened at Ontario Place.
Anyway, I went to the show with almost everyone I knew, we parked ourselves on the small raked lawn behind the seats and just had a rip-roarin’ good time.
Oddly enough, the opening band was an outfit called The Warren Haynes Band. Of course this is odd for two reasons: 1) Warren Haynes was one of the guitar players in the Allman’s so he was essentially opening for himself, and 2) most people associate Warren’s solo work with his great trio Gov’t Mule, but I guess this must have been pre-Mule. Anyway, he did his job, warming up the crowd with a solid chunk of growly, distorted southern blues before ducking backstage and re-emerging as part of the headlining act.
If memory serves correctly Dickie Betts (the other guitar player in The Allman’s) had been arrested just a few days before this show and he was cooling his heels in jail somewhere, which of course kept him from playing this show.
In his place the Allman’s brought up one of the drummer’s nephews to play guitar for a few songs, some little kid named Derek Trucks who had just turned fourteen. From my spot up on the lawn he looked to be about four feet tall, holding what looked like an oversized Telecaster in his hands (my memory swears he was playing a Tele though he famously plays a Gibson SG exclusively).
I remember turning to a friend (likely JP) shortly after Derek broke into his first solo and saying, “he’s pretty good for a kid.”
About sixty seconds later I leaned in a second time. “Correction, this guy is great, kid or not.”
I could barely get the sentence out, my jaw dangling slackly near the ground as it was.
Overall it was a dancing-with-your-hands-in-the-air rockin’ guitar solo fiesta kind of concert and I loved it. Having spent the day at Canada’s Wonderland with all of my friends didn’t hurt one bit either.
And while this show was responsible for completely and utterly turning me into an Allman Brothers fan** I remember it more for my introduction to the amazing Derek Trucks, who of course went on to replace Dickie Betts in the band.
And to this day I remain a rather avid fan of young Mr. Trucks. And the Allmans too, of course.
*Incidentally, it was immediately before this concert began that I agreed to move in with JP. I remember we were walking around Canada’s Wonderland near the mountain and he was telling me that his roommate (a good friend we call The Geez) was moving out and he didn’t know what he was going to do. My lease was about to run out so I casually said “I’ll take his room.” That was clearly a great relief to JP and it saved me from scrambling to find somewhere to move in the next few weeks. We ended up being roommates for the next decade or so.
**With an honorary mention to JP (and the Freeway Band I suppose) for laying the groundwork.
Todd Man Out 