June 14, 1979 review: The Allman Brothers Band in the Aud

 


Buffalo always had a special relationship with these guys, dating back to that infamous date in 1970 at Aliotta’s on Hertel Avenue, when their road manager stabbed the club owner to death in a dispute over money.

June 14, 1979 

Older, Wiser Allman Brothers

Have Their Act Together Again

Gregg Allman grins into the Memorial Auditorium spotlights Wednesday night. “Long time, no see,” he chirps innocently, as if all that hide-and-seek with Cher here a couple of years ago was far, far in the past.

         But then again, the Allman Brothers Band has a tradition of forgiving the past, even if they don’t forget it. Despite all the fussing and fighting, drugging and dying, they’ve got it together again. They dedicate the show to the late Berry Oakley and Duane Allman.

         The Allmans prove themselves true to that musical memory. They recount many of their old favorites, from “Whipping Post” to “Blue Sky” to “One Way Out,” and they mix in some the best numbers from their new “Enlightened Rogues” album.

         Gregg Allman, walled in by his keyboards on one end of the stage, shakes his shaggy blond mane and wails with a voice that’s hoarser than ever. Close your eyes and you can imagine him being an old-time Southern bluesman.

         The other focus is guitarist Dickey Betts in his cowboy hat at center stage. He relieves Gregg’s raggedy blues with his smooth country-rock ballads. Second guitarist Dangerous Dan Toler joins him to recreate the old Allman twin-guitar arpeggios all through the night.

         The old sound is reinforced in other ways too. Vocalist Buford Smith (subbing for Bonnie Bramlett) helps Betts out with harmonies. A harmonica player steps out to assist on the blues numbers.

         Beyond that, the keys to the Allmans’ underpinning are drummers Jaimoe Johanny Johanson and Butch Trucks, who finally get to show their stuff in the instrumental “Pegasus,” which the band saves for its first encore.

         It’s a curiously flat show, however. Blame it on the long pauses between the songs. Without them, the Allmans could have trimmed half an hour off their 2¾ hour marathon. And that’s not counting the five-minute breaks between each song in their triple encore.

         The sound system should get some of the blame too. The mix is atrocious. It distorts the highs, muddies the lows and turns the vocals into gibberish.

         It did the same for opener Bob Welch, the rock singer and songwriter formerly with Fleetwood Mac. In front of the crowd that wanted to boogie with the Allmans, his lightweight stylings had little effect until he arrived at his hit, “Ebony Eyes.”

         As Welch was getting underway, Harvey and Corky Productions were serving up “The World’s Largest Indoor Barbecue” – chicken wings and spareribs for 10,000. They doled them out in paper cups, two per ticketholder. As a snack, they were OK. As garbage, they were terrible. By intermission, there were more bones on the floor of the lobby than in a graveyard.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: The Allman Brothers Band in a 1979 Capricorn Records publicity photo. 

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: This wasn't a complete reunion of the Allman Brothers Band lineup that broke up in 1976. Bassist Lamar Williams and keyboardist Chuck Leavell, who had been part of Dickey Betts' group Great Southern, didn't want to jump back into the fray, although Dangerous Dan Toler, also a Great Southerner, was willing.

        Their "Enlightened Rogues" album, which reached No. 9 on the Billboard charts, was their last for Capricorn Records. They sued the label after it went bankrupt in October. The reunion lasted for two more albums on Arista.

        They tried again in 1989. Encouraged by their popularity on classic rock radio, Betts and Allman regrouped with a slightly different lineup for their 20th anniversary in 1989 and soon got testy with each other, but the band managed to limp along, despite a total split between Betts and Allman in 1996. Things began looking up again when young guitarist Derek Trucks, drummer Butch Trucks' nephew, arrived in 1999 and the band enjoyed a revival of fortunes that lasted until they played their final show in October 2014.

        These days drummer Jaimoe Johanson is the last surviving member of the original Allmans. Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks both died in 2017 and cancer claimed Dickey Betts in April 2024.

        Setlist.fm seems to have a full accounting of what they played that night in the Aud:

Don't Want You No More

It's Not My Cross to Bear

Can't Take It With You

Blue Sky

Need Your Love So Bad

Blind Love

Crazy Love

Just Ain't Easy

In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Statesboro Blues

Try It One More Time

One Way Out

Southbound

Jessica

Whipping Post

(encore)

Pegasus

Ramblin' Man

Midnight Rider

Mountain Jam

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