Last night I went to see Derek Trucks Band at the Boston House of Blues (which opened recently). What a concert! The night started well – I found a metered space on Boylston St. 🙂 Plus, no ballgame meant an easier time getting there.
The venue itself is in the shadow of Fenway Park on Lansdowne St. We arrived around 7:20 for the 8:00 pm start. The hall is a big open room on the first floor with bars around the perimeter. That’s where the plebes stand during the concerts. We did, too. The second floor has standing room along the sides (not much either). Third floor is for the elite ticket holders (the ones who planned ahead and bought them) and has actual seats, but only at the back because the floor area is a big, open three story barn.
I hadn’t listened to Derek Trucks before but I knew of him, if that counts. His wife is Susan Tedeschi, who sang backup on a few songs with the band, which was cool. The only song I recognized was “My Favorite Things” – but I bet I was the only one who equated it with Coltrane and not The Sound of Music. I did know that Trucks played a few Coltrane songs on some of his albums, like “Afro Blue” and I heard a Wes Montgomery tune “Bock to Bock” that he played on one CD, so he has that jazz knowledge, anyway. I sorta knew “Sweet Inspirations”, one of the encores, but I don’t know if that’s because I listened to it on youtube yesterday or what. Anyway, he played blues, some funky stuff (Hammond B3 and Hohner Clavinet – woohoo!), some rock – but always tasty. Another thing that I liked is that even though he has chops for days, he knew when to quiet it down and build momentum in his solos up to an ear-bleeding crescendo. And, there was an element of simply jamming befitting a live concert.
Derek played a red Gibson SG which you see in all the videos on youtube. I don’t think he had any effects on it, but I couldn’t see the stage floor. The amps looked like either a Fender twin or deluxe…loud enough either way. He played a lot with the slide. On one song he used what I think was an old Silvertone in an open tuning, as seen in this official photo. The band played until about 11:30, with 2 encores. By that time, I was surely a tired puppy.
Jaibo Jaszz Band opened and played 8-9. They were entertaining, but still a warm up act. I could have used a little more variety in the tempo, but I cannot fault them on musicianship, etc. Nice horn section and the guitarist was good (red Gibson SG, too).
All in all, a good night.
Chris
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