We had to miss the August 25th Chicago Theatre Tedeschi Trucks Band show due to a work function (being a grown up is so unjust). Instead we decided to make a small road trip out of it and go see them in Milwaukee. Due to my friend Mike's wife not being able to make the show my son Michael was the lucky recipient of the 4th ticket (he is a big DerekTrucks fan). We got to the theatre around 7:45 after a heavy dinner. The Riverside is an old, ornate and small theatre. Similar to the Rivera but with assigned seating.
At a smaller show like this I usually dread an opening act. Evey now and then I am wrong but this was not one of those cases. The opening act was Scrapomatic. This was an acoustic guitar, electric guitar and vocals by Mike Mattison (lead singer of the Derek Trucks Band...yes the guy with the funky hair). The sound was awful. It was too loud and the environment was not right. I understood the intent of what they were doing and Mike Mattison has a great voice but this was not where they belonged. This was the right band for a daytime show at a festival somewhere. I could enjoy them more while eating a funnel cake or deep fried Oreo. The best I could hope for is that the sound people heard how bad it was and took the opportunity to fix the mix and get us a better sound for TTB.
TTB came out around 9:30 and got right to work. I have to comment that as a working couple, these two really dig each other...coming out on the stage with their arms around each other's wastes, even though this is what they do night after night. First song is Joe Cocker's Space Captain which set the pace for an incredible evening. Susan starts with just vocals, although with Susan, saying "just vocals" isn't fair. This woman is wicked. She tears right through you. Derek walks around stage without much swagger and just plays like any other band member until all of a sudden you notice he is building into something sweet, complex and beautiful. Without even seeing him coming, Derek picked me up grabbed my feet spun me around the room and threw me into a musical flight that felt great! The closest comparison I can make is Yoda. Nobody realizes Yoda can kick their ass until it is too late.
The band slows down to their own classic (and one of my favorites) Midnight in Harlem played flawlessly. She has the voice of an angel. At this point the only frustration is that the mix is still off. They have the vocals too loud. I am not sure if it is the venue or the people at the Soundboard. Through the night it got better but was never perfect. On to Come See About Me and then what was looking to finally be an uneventfull moment with Don't Let Me Slide. As far as an uneventful moment, I couldn't be more wrong. Oteil Burbidge, starts to lay down some bass lines to set up a frame work for his brother Kofi Bubridge who belted out a wicked keyboard solo. This is probably a good time to mention that Oteil LOVES what he does. This man could not control himself. I have never seen a bass player as animated as Oteil. He couldn't even stay on stage having to walk and jump around (oh and by the way, he is a fantastic bassist). Off to another slow starter with Until You Remember. Then Susan's voice cut me to shreds slowly. TTB changed gears to cover The Beatles' I've Got a Feeling with Mike Mattison and Susan sharing vocals, how do you not feel great after this? On to a slow song and blues song that I dont know the names of. Like all of the songs so far tonight, Derek has built in some sort of tasty jam. Mike Mattison comes back out to share the front on the cover of Eric Clapton's Any Day. This jam turns out to be something pretty special, considering a night of "specials". Derek pulls into his most intense jam of the evening, going so far as to break a string in the middle and without missing a beat changes guitars, twice. After giving us a chance to catch our breath TTB jumps into cover the Stevie Wonder classic Uptight. Uptight leads to a hot trumpet lead and off to a fantastic drum jam with Oteil staying in to create something spacey. Eventually Oteil steps up to the microphone during this spacey jam to scat (and he was good). The show closer was Bound for Glory. Bound for Glory was such a crescendo that it was obvious that they could go no further and had to get off the stage. We weren't going to let them go for that long. On to the three song encore. They played the slow and somewhat uneventful (only by this show's standards)Shelter with background singer Mark Rivers sharing the front with Susan. Then the jam of the night. Sing a Simple Song into I Want to Take You Higher both by Sly and the Family Stone left me drooling. Mike Mattison and Mark Rivers playing baritone and falsetto roles sounded fantastic. I believe even the greatest of concerts have a defining moment and being a funk fan, this would be it for me.
This band is into what they do. You can see that they truly enjoy each others music. There was even a section behind the drums where you could see different member of the band going to play percussion instruments when they weren't featured on stage. If you aren't familiar with the music that I am referencing, go onto youtube and pull up clips of TTB and enjoy.
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