Butch Trucks. Photo by Larry Hulst

The Allman Brothers Band will return to New York’s Beacon Theatre Thursday, March 10, for a 13-show run of shows.  In a recent interview with Relix, drummer Butch Trucks said, ’Everybody’s pumped. Everybody’s excited. It’s pretty much sold out already.’

The Beacon schedule runs March 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25 and 26. The shows will air on Moogis.com, a subscription website started by Trucks that shows archived and real-time concerts. The Allman Brothers Band has strong ties to New York City, dating back to its frequent appearances at the Fillmore East venue until it closed in 1971. In 1989, the Allman Brothers established a tradition of performing lengthy runs at the Beacon, and this year the band will surpass the 200th-show mark at the venue.

The Allman Brothers would have reached that milestone last year, but the group lost its spot at the Beacon in 2010 when MSG Entertainment booked a Cique du Soleil show over the Southern rock act. After a celebrated 2009 run that marked the band’s 40th anniversary with prominent guest musicians and tribute to late guitarist Duane Allman, the 20-year run at the Beacon ended. In 2010, the legendary rockers relocated to the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights. But in November, band members announced they would return to the Beacon, after MSG Entertainment executives apologized to the group.

Trucks said he’s thrilled about returning to the Beacon because it has a different vibe than the United Palace.

‘For one thing, you can’t smoke at United Palace,’ Trucks said. ‘If they see any kind of smoke wafting from anywhere in that place, you get kicked out. And there’s no drinking at United Palace,’ he said.

Trucks said the looser atmosphere at the Beacon fosters a better environment for typical Allman fans. He also noted the history the band has with the venue.

‘This year will be 22 years of history,’ he said. ’It’s quite a tradition. And it sounds great. It feels great. It’s the best place in the world to play as far as I’m concerned,’ Trucks said.
In addition to celebrating a return to the Beacon, 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the band’s legendary live album, At Fillmore East and Trucks said they will commemorate the album during its Beacon run.

’I’m not going to say it, but you can guess what we’re going to play that night,’ Trucks said. ‘And I would imagine that ’Mountain Jam’ will last a long time.’

Although ‘Mountain Jam’ didn’t appear on the original At Fillmore East double-album because of time constraints, it was added to The Fillmore Concerts box set released in 1992 and the 2003 release of At the Fillmore East Deluxe Edition.

Trucks said the band pulls from its large repertoire, which includes original songs and old blues songs they ‘Allamanize,’ to make each of the Beacon shows unique.

‘At the Beacon, we try very, very hard not to repeat songs,’ Trucks said. ‘We have enough songs in our repertoire to where we can pretty much play 13 shows without ever repeating a song.’ He said they repeat some songs like ‘Statesboro Blues’ and ‘Southbound,’ but ‘the bigger ones, the more epic tunes’ they try not to play too much.

’We’ll do ‘Elizabeth Reed’ one night, ‘Les Brers’ another night, and ‘Jessica’ another night and now we’ve got a new one. We started doing ‘Kind of Bird’ again,’ he said.

The side projects of other band members like Gregg Allman’s solo album and tour, restrict the Allman Brothers from touring a lot this summer. However, they will headline their own Wanee Music Festival in Live Oak, Florida April 14 ’ 16.

Trucks said the Allman Brothers are winding down, but the guys are planning some things for this year. ‘Rather than doing a lot of shows, we’re going to do a few and they’re going to be very special,’ he said.

’There’s no doubt about it that when we get together as the Allman Brothers that’s the most fun that Derek, Warren, Gregg, any of them, have the whole year. Every one of them will tell you that.’

Please click here for more on Butch Trucks and the members of the Allman Brothers Band.