Tedeschi Trucks Band returned to New York, NY’s Beacon Theatre on Monday night for the 50th time. Hot Tuna joined the festivities as a surprise opening act and returned to the stage later to sit in for a Janis Joplin debut and a fan-favorite Bob Dylan cover. Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, and company, they completed their grand presentation of I Am The Moon with a full performance of I. Crescent within a career-spanning setlist.
Those who were able to escape the rain and make it to their seats on time were treated to a surprise opening acoustic set from Hot Tuna. The legendary duo of Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady worked through a diverse selection of numbers beginning with two songs from their 1970 debut self-titled live album, Jelly Roll Morton’s “Don’t You Leave Me Here (Dime For Beer)” and the traditional “Hesitation Blues”, which steadily proceeded into Reverend Gary Davis’s “Let Us Get Together Right Down Here”.
The duo paused after Richard M. Jones’s “Trouble in Mind” before launching into “Sea Child” from ‘72’s Burgers. Hot Tuna continued with the traditional “Good Shepherd” in the arrangement from Jefferson Airplane’s 1969 album, Volunteers. Winding down their hour-long set, Jorma and Jack dished out a pair of originals with “Day to Day Out the Window Blues” and a somber take of “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” before closing with Jesse Fuller’s “San Francisco Bay Blues”.
As Tedeschi Trucks Band’s twelve members filled out the stage, Susan Tedeschi thanked the audience and Hot Tuna before diving into an extended headlining set with “Don’t Let Me Slide”. Wasting time no more, Derek Trucks and Susan quickly initiated an exchange of passionate guitar solos. The song selection itself was a significant one: The track from Revelator, the group’s first album, also opened the band’s first show at the Beacon over a decade ago on September 10th, 2011.
The second song on the setlist, “All That I Need”, came from the band’s second album, 2013’s Made Up Mind, starting a pattern that would continue through the first four songs. With a bridging trombone section, Elizabeth Lea led the band into another scorching guitar solo from Derek’s cherry Gibson SG.
The third song, “Laugh About It”, was lifted from Tedeschi Trucks Band’s third studio album, 2016’s Let Me Get By, and the fourth selection took the theater to the outfit’s fourth LP, 2019’s Signs, as its titular “Signs, High Times” showcased the deep vocal roster of Mark Rivers, Mike Mattison, and Alecia Chakour over Susan’s guitar solo.
From there, it was on to the band’s fifth studio album, 2022’s four-part I Am The Moon. The group has been working a different segment of the ambitious project into each of its Beacon shows this year, with I Am The Moon parts III. The Fall, IV. Farewell, and II. Ascension appearing at Thursday, Friday, and Saturday’s shows, respectively. Monday’s full reading of I. Crescent both closed out that cycle and continued the evening’s chronological tour of the TTB discography.
Derek’s slide guitar and Susan’s powerful vocals were on full display during “Hear My Dear” before the gravelly-voiced Mike Mattison stepped to the front of the stage, acoustic guitar in hand, for a brassy rendition of “Fall In”. That led into the namesake of the project, the euphoric celebration that is “I Am The Moon”, before “Circles ‘Round the Sun” gave Kebbi Williams and his saxophone time to shine. The voice of artist Eddie Owens Martin, a.k.a St. EOM, creeped in like a faceless musical deity to introduce “Pasaquan”, the opus that takes its name from the unique artistic site he founded in Georgia. The majority of the band cleared the stage as the disembodied voice spoke, leaving Derek, keyboardist Gabe Dixon, bassist Brandon Boone, and the two drummers, Tyler Greenwell and Isaac Eady, to deliver perhaps the most captivating song on the four-part album.
The song’s composition features rising and falling movements like the tides of the ocean during a time-lapse photo series. Derek captained the vessel with an extended intro before synching up Gabe Dixon for a monumental jam. The music dropped out to give the drummers time to improvise a percussive section before Boone and Trucks jumped back in to send the song skyward once again.
After a standing ovation and raucous cheers of appreciation, Susan welcomed Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady to the half-empty stage for the TTB debut of Janis Joplin’s “Turtle Blues”. Building momentum, the slimmed-down roster of seven musicians (two drummers, DT, ST, GD, JK, JC) rode forth into an unforgettable performance of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”.
As the lengthy set wound down, the full twelve-piece complement returned for a rowdy “Made Up Mind” featuring a hearty Clavinet solo from Dixon’s corner and passionate vocalizations from Mark Rivers. An uplifting rendition of Derek and The Dominos’ “Keep On Growing” preceded a thundering version of “The Storm”, the song’s lyrics describing how so many Floridians along the west coast felt last week during Hurricane Ian’s reign of destruction.
To round out this single, two-hour set, Derek and Susan cut into a consolidated version of the Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post”. The performance was light on the words and heavy on the jams as Derek reminded the audience of the timeless riffs from his former band.
Returning to the stage one final time, Tedeschi Trucks Band celebrated the landmark evening with a three-song curtain call that began with “Another Day” and “Soul Sweet Song” off I Am The Moon: IV. Farewell, the first of the I Am The Moon tunes to make a repeat appearance at the Beacon. To put a cherry on top of the 50th Beacon show, the band honored the late Leon Russell with an emotional presentation of “Space Captain”, the Matthew Moore-penned song that became a staple of Mad Dogs and the Englishmen shows and, in turn, many memorable Tedeschi Trucks concerts like this one.
Tedeschi Trucks Band rolls down the tracks for three more shows at the prestigious Beacon Theatre on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (October 6th–8th). For a complete list of upcoming shows, head here.
Scroll down to check out complete setlists and full video and audio playlists from the 50th Tedeschi Trucks Band concert at the Beacon Theatre in addition to a gallery of photos from the show via Andrew Blackstein.
Tedeschi Trucks Band – Beacon Theatre – 10/3/22 – Full Audio
[Audio: edtyre2]
[Videos: sgibson818]
Setlist: Acoustic Hot Tuna | Beacon Theatre | New York, NY | 10/3/22
Set: Don’t You Leave Me Here (Dime For Beer), Hesitation Blues, Let Us Get Together Right Down Here, Trouble in Mind, Sea Child, Good Shepherd, Day to Day Out the Window Blues, Death Don’t Have No Mercy, San Francisco Bay Blues
Setlist: Tedeschi Trucks Band | Beacon Theatre | New York, NY | 10/3/22
Set: Don’t Let Me Slide, All That I Need, Laugh About It, Signs, High Times, Hear My Dear%, Fall In%, I Am The Moon%, Circles ‘Round The Sun%, Pasaquan%, Turtle Blues (Janis Joplin)*^, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Bob Dylan)*, Made Up Mind, Keep On Growing (Derek and the Dominos), The Storm / Whipping Post (Allman Brothers Band)
Encore: Another Day, Soul Sweet Song, Space Captain (Matthew Moore)
%Part of complete performance of I Am The Moon: I. Crescent
*with Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady
^First time played by TTB
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