Photo Credit: Stuart Levine

On Thursday, Feb. 29, Tedeschi Trucks Band touched down in New York for the first performance in its highly-anticipated run at the Beacon Theatre. For the first of these three shows, the 12-piece ensemble presented two thrilling sets of 19 total tried-and-true originals and classic covers, including treatments of Taj Mahal, Blind Faith, Aretha Franklin and more. To bookend the second set, esteemed saxophonist Ravi Coltrane joined the band and contributed to soul-stirring servings of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and Billy Taylor’s iconic “I Wish I Knew How It Would It Would Feel To Be Free.”

Tedeschi Trucks Band kicked off its residency with “Hear My Dear,” the opening track from the group’s sprawling 2022 release I Am The Moon, introducing a set composed almost entirely of entries from this most recent project. 2016’s “Laugh About It” and covers of Taj Mahal’s “Everybody’s Got to Change Sometime” and Blind Faith’s heart-wrenching “Had to Cry Today”–which featured a reprise of “Circles ‘Round the Sun”–were the only exceptions to this rule, building to a treatment of disc one closer “Pasaquan” that wrapped the first set.

When the band returned to the stage for its second act, it was joined by Coltrane, who strutted on with his shimmering axe in tow. Coltrane supported TTB in a rousing rendition of Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” meticulously penned by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin for 1991’s Luck of the Draw, then departed as the band moved into “Soul Sweet Song.” Continuing with Aretha Franklin’s “It Ain’t Fair,” the band presented an impressive second set, highlighted by a cover of Derek and the Dominos’ “Anyday,” which gleamed with a “Blue Sky” tease.

Coltrane returned to the stage for a team-up on Tedeschi Trucks Band’s 2013 smash hit “Part of Me.” The ensemble kept on with a cover of Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers’ “How Blue Can You Get?” before finally wrapping the main portion of its performance with a final Coltrane collaboration on the impactful Nina Simone standard “I Wish I Knew How It Would It Would Feel To Be Free,” which retains its urgency today.

Tedeschi Trucks Band will return to the Beacon Theatre tonight; for tickets and more information, visit msg.com. Click here to see further dates in the band’s Deuces Wild tour.

Read on for the evening’s complete setlist.

Tedeschi Trucks Band
The Beacon Theatre – New York
2/29/23

Set 1: Hear My Dear, Ain’t That Something, Laugh About It, I Am the Moon, Everybody’s Got to Change Sometime+, Circles ‘Round the Sun, Had to Cry Today^ >Circles ‘Round the Sun#, Pasaquan
Set 2: I Can’t Make You Love Me*~, Soul Sweet Song, It Ain’t Fair%, Gravity, Do I Look Worried, Last Night in the Rain, Anyday$, Part of Me*, How Blue Can You Get?&, I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free*!
Encore: I Wish You Well`

Notes:
* w/ Ravi Coltrane
+ Taj Mahal cover
^ Blind Faith cover
# Reprise
~ Bonnie Raitt cover
% Aretha Franklin cover
$ Derek and the Dominos cover, with “Blue Sky” tease
& Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers cover
! Billy Taylor cover
` Bill Withers cover

Setlist via setlist.fm