Last month in a Jambands.com interview Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks looked ahead to the opening song of the groups Beacon Theater run. He said, “I’ve got an idea for a Miles Davis song this year. Im hoping that I can get everyone to go along with it. My idea is this: we normally come out and we start the first song of the first night with something really bombastic, but I thought it would be a really cool idea to come out with something incredibly mellow. This track doesnt even have any drums on it in the beginning, just nothing but guitars. Its real smooth and real mellow to start it off—-set everything up and get everything really smooth and then kick in with the next song and I think itd be much more powerful. But, well see, its just an idea.”

Trucks’ notion was realized last evening at the Beacon when the ABB opened the first of their thirteen public shows with In A Silent Way. The song, which appears on the celebrated Miles Davis album of the same name (which also features John McLaughlin, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Dave Holland, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Joe Zawinul), was a debut cover for the ABB. Following In A Silent Way the band launched into Don’t Want You No More which typically segues into Its Not My Cross To Bear, however the band demonstrated that it is shaking things up on this tour, as instead, the tune carried into Desdemona. Another highlight was an extended version of No One To Run With which appeared early in the second set.
The Allman Brothers Band returns to the Beacon this evening.