A near capacity crowd filled the seats of the Beacon Theatre on a Thursday night in New York for what promised to be a powerful show as a smiling Levon Helm brought a plethora of multi-talented musicians to accompany him onstage. The 12-piece band rocked through songs like “Ophelia,” “747” (for which they were joined by blues great Joe Louis Walker) and “Long Black Veil” to get started, but it soon became clear that they were just warming up.

Throughout the night, the musical free-for-all that Helm is famous for kept the crowd on the edge of their seats, bobbing their collective heads and smiling with each tune. Every artist got a turn to take centerstage at least once, with vocal duties switching between Levon and his daughter Amy Helm, and guitarists Teresa Williams, Jimmy Vivino and Larry Campbell. Tony Leone took over drumming duty more than once, which gave Helm a chance to play mandolin on “Ashes of Love” and “Deep Elem Blues,” which rocked so hard that even Helm had to bow down to the horn section afterward. But that was only a pretense for what was to come.

With Helm behind the drums, “Rag Mama Rag” energized the room before Vivino welcomed the one-and-only Phoebe Snow to the stage for two songs, including a rousing rendition of “Save the Last Dance for Me.” Then keyboardist Brian Mitchell took the reigns and dove into “Across the Great Divide,” while Helm sang along, laughing and joking with the crowd as Mike Merritt kept it swinging on the upright bass.

Apparently though, that was not enough. Guitarist Jim Weider (who has played with The Band, Bob Dylan and Dr. John, among others) joined the crew as they muscled through “Remedy,” “Makes No Difference,” and “The Shape I’m In,” each tune adding more and more excitement to an already jam-packed show.

Helm welcomed everyone back on stage for one last tune, with Vivino proclaiming, “This is gonna be the longest version of this song you ever heard,” before they ripped into an all-out “The Weight.” As Helm got up and gave his praise to the crowd, the rest of the band refused to leave, and the audience followed suit. With the crowd still on it’s feet anticipating what could possibly come next, “I Shall Be Released,” provided every musician with a solo and every vocalist a verse in true Last Waltz fashion.

The Levon Helm Band will continue to “Ramble on the Road” in Philadelphia on March 28 at the Electric Factory.