Re: Dicky Betts & Great Southern, Ridgefield Playhouse, Ridgefield, CT 6/3/06

"neurodancer" <tyronethighbone555@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1149462136.404032.15170@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I saw the ABros twice in March, and while it would be kind of silly and
pointless to compare the two bands, I left the Ridgefield play house
with a similar sense of euphoria that I left the Beacon Theatre with a
few months ago. Two months into the tour, DB is playing with passion
and intensity and GS is a has solidifed into very impressive ensemble.
The Ridgefield PlayHouse is a cozy 500 seat redone school auditorium
with great acoustics and a good bar (from which they allow you to bring
what you want into the music hall). The worst seat in the house is the
equivalent of halfway back on the floor of the Beacon.
GS opened with High Falls, then Statesboro. Other first set highlights
included a riveting Stormy Monday sung by their talented, attractive
and very enthusiastic female vocalist, Blue Sky (with an extended
reggae/synchopated Franklin's Tower-everyone thought that was the
tune-opening and featuring that always wonderful guitar solo screaming
to sky one more time) and a semi-reworked Elizabeth Reed to close the
set. For the songs that I saw both bands do (BS, IMOER, One Way Out,
Jessica, Southbound), GS had by far the more innovative, newer takes on
the songs. The ABros, god bless 'em, do many of the tunes structurally
more or less as they have always done them, eg. IMOER is not all that
different from the Fillmore East version. I say structurally because of
course the guitar solos are always as fresh as can be, I'm referring to
the framework of the songs. GS, on the other hand, throws in new
intros, reggae influenced beats, changes in emphasis, riffs I've never
heard before etc. This is probably in part because they don't have the
extensive covers and new material that the ABros do to keep things
fresh, so they do it with new takes on the old stuff.
The second set included 7 Turns, Back Where We Belong (?), No one Left
to Run With, OWO, Jessica (with solid emphatic quotes from Mountain Jam
& Les Brers in A Minor and the keyboard player doing a wonderful job
with that sainted Chuck Leavell piano riff), and Southbound (probably
the hardest jammed song of the night). The encore was Louie
Louie...nah. You all know damn well what the encore was. Every song
was distinctive and fully explored, nothing was left on the table. The
second lead guitar was especially impressive as was the bass player,
Bett's son played 3rd guitar, the sound was in no way muddy or crowded
despite the 3 guitars.
Talking to a member of the crew, I got the interesting news that Betts
is still a 25% partner in the ABros (with, I assume Jaimoe, Trucks &
Gregg) due to a "brother for life" contract signed long ago and that
the band is spending big money trying to change this with no success so
far. Two implications are that Haynes, Derek & Quinones are
essentially (no doubt well paid) hired hands and that Betts ain't
touring because he needs the dough. Betts said during the second set
that he's playing the Beacon July 26, that it's going to be the first
time he's played there in a while time and it's a very, very important
show to him. If you're planning on going, see you there.
ND


Thanks for the review. He's playing in DC area (at the great Birchmere) on
6/15. That's the same night that Elvis C. and Allen Touissant are playing
at Wolftrap, and same night that Sonic Youth is playing at 930 Club. Talk
about your conflicts! I'm leaning toward Dickey right now...


.

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