As the first Allman to tour Australia, join Devon from Royal Southern Brotherhood as he shares blog entries, pictures and video from the tour. Click here to read Day One and Click here to read Day Two.

Day Three

After landing in Sydney I was on the beach within 2 hours. The ocean was an amazing shade of turquoise, the weather was perfect..end of summer / beginning of fall here, and there were people everywhere. Sydney is a very vibrant modern city. It’s clean, the people are warm and the vibe is sublime. It’s like a clean, tropical, Chicago or San Francisco. At least that’s the feel I get.

I took a nap to shake off some of the jet lag and then my Royal Southern Brotherhood brothers and I made our way down to the arena to see Santana. I’d seen him years and years ago from the last row at home in St.Louis. This time we parked in the back, went through the backstage doors, hung out with the band and then watched this man do his thing in front of the barrier 10 feet from him.

The show started with luminous, cosmic displays on a screen behind the band that was accompanied by soft cymbal splashes, and Carlos himself doing low rolls on a floor tom behind the kit ..and then shit blew up. My dear lord this guy has more mojo in a stitch of his pants than most have in their entire being. I know he is a spiritual cat and you can absolutely feel that energy. I wondered how his guitar tone might come across in the big sports type arena. Well let’s just say it was everything you know it to be. A cross between smoked mahogany, slowly melting butter, soft orange velvet and the aural equivalent of the seduction found looking at a Moroccan sunset. It affected me on a molecular level.

He is one of the reasons why after years and years of playing rhythm guitar and being scared to death of anything past the 7th fret ..that I began to try my hand at lead guitar. I wanted to find a voice with my playing- really SAY something. His phrasing, tone and note selection are just so monster.

After sleeping and getting the time zones sorted and feeling back to normal I woke up and walked the streets of Sydney a bit more. Finally got to check out the iconic Sydney Opera House as well. Sound check happened about 4 pm and it was great to play music with the Brotherhood again. We haven’t played together since about a month ago but we fell into that pocket right away. Tonight is the first show we play in Australia. I feel very fortunate to be here and can’t wait til the lights go down and the amps turn up !

Thanks for coming along y’all

Devon Allman