Dickie Betts last night

[CyberHippie]

I arrived at the Opera House a little before 10:30. Even though I expcted it, I was still surprised to walk into an absolutely packed venue. Can't believe how early it filled up, I'm sure I must have been one of the last people to enter. The band was already playing, although given the length of the set I don't think I could have missed too much.

The last 'song' they played before the end of first set, was by far the highlight for me. they laid down a raging "Elizabeth Reed", it had a very heady organ groove going on. About the only time you really noticed the organ at all really. There was also a tastey Blue Sky in there, and a few other tunes (any setlists floating around?).

The band took a short break and the crowd was able to move about a little. I still can't believe how packed it was in there. I was surprised to not see anyone I knew, but that can happen sometimes in a packed venue like that. I managed to settle in to a nice spot top right of the stairs that go to the floor. I had an amazing view from there, and the sound was quite good!

The 2nd set highlight was when Jimmy Bowskill came out and cut heads with Dickey for a bit. His bass player also came out and laid down some heavy/funky beats. I'm not sure if an encore was planned, because after a long *sick* "jessica" it seemed like the band had given it all, and was done. But there was an overwhelming show of support from the still very full crowd (after 1am) and the band came back on with a Ramblin' Man encore.

The show was a fairly even mix of Dickey's new songs and classic Allmans tunes. My overall impression of the show was positive, I did really enjoy it. However, jams and transitions were a bit awkward at times. Lets be honest here, Greg and Warren were *missing* from the mix. I think you can sucessfully take one ingredient out of the Allman Brothers, but I don't think that one ingredient can be as tastey without the others. The 'magic' just wasn't really there. It was good don't get me wrong but for me at least it wasn't awe inspiring. Would I go again? Yup, but wouldn't go out of my way too much for it.

Marky put on a great show, the turnout was excellent. Great job getting Q107 on board, I think that was part of the key to the sucess of the show.