Tedeschi Trucks Live Up to Reputation at Saenger
Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Saenger on January 7, by Sam Cosby
The band took time to work the kinks out, but by the end of the show, guest reviewer Marc Stone was ready to get tickets for the next night’s show.
[NOTE: Marc Stone has been doing his part to keep soul and the blues present in New Orleans as a guitarist, bandleader, promoter, and WWOZ DJ. His most recent release is his duet with Meschiya Lake on the song “When We Were Cheating.” Marc reviewed the first night of Tedeschi Trucks Band’s two-night stand at The Saenger since the band is in his wheelhouse, and he has a perspective on it that we don’t. ]
I arrived a decade late to the Tedeschi Trucks Band party when I hit the Saenger Theater in New Orleans on Friday , January 7. I had already heard plenty of audio of the band, seen Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks individually multiple times, and had not missed the message of many music-loving friends referring to them as “the best band in the land.”
True to the warnings of several friends, some folks behind me were loudly complaining about people standing up prior to the show. The loudest of the bunch flashed me a smile and asked, “You do agree though, don’t you?” I didn’t, but the point was moot since most of the crowd were on their feet for the entire show.
The band got off to a low-key, deliberate start with Tedeschi out front on lead vocals and lead guitar on soul/pop original “Anyhow” and their by-the-book cover of the Beatles “I’ve Got A Feeling,” which featured vocalist Mike Mattison playing John to Tedeschi’s Paul. Trucks laid way back in the cut, providing restrained and supportive rhythm parts.
They brought the energy up a notch with their own “Don’t Let Me Slide” in the number three slot as Trucks emerged from his sideman stance with a ripping but contained, fretted solo. He then let loose with his slide for the first time of the night with a blistering high note during “Until You Remember.” For the next several tunes Trucks played aggressive, blues-based slide, eschewing the Sacred Steel-influenced sweeping melismas that are fodder for his legion imitators in favor of a more staccato style, picking almost all of his notes and keeping his slide movements small. He would be judicious throughout the show in the way he deployed his stylistic trademarks.
Trucks seemed almost impatient, chomping at the bit to play as he tore into his solos with abandon. Tedeschi took a little more time to fully emerge. Her vocals were strong and clean from jump, but she had some small guitar struggles and didn’t seem entirely loose or connected for much of the first set. At various points, she and Trucks seemed to be running in different gears, but by the epic set closer of “Idle Wind,” things were starting to balance. Brought in by a Mahivishnu-esque slide intro from Trucks and peppered with his Eastern-influenced playing throughout, the song proved one the evening’s best meeting points between the band’s soul and roots core and their more expansive impulses. It also provided a feature for New Orleans-based drummer Isaac Eady on his first hometown show with the band. He and drummer Tyler “Falcon” Greenwell engaged in a dynamic drum conversation that built from a whisper to roar before another searing and ethereal Trucks solo took the set home.
Given the incredible amount of talent and far reaching scope of instrumental and vocal abilities within the band, I wondered what the show would sound like with more interaction between Tedeschi, Trucks and the band. Not that the leaders were in any way stingy with sharing the light, but for all the accoutrements of the large ensemble, theirs remained a star-driven show. There were some fine features throughout, but it left me curious to see how they would deploy all those assets throughout their shows.
The second set kicked off with a Mattison-led “Walk On Glided Splinters,” referencing the hard hitting, Duane Allman-graced Johnny Jenkins version more than the creeping hoodoo of Dr. John’s original. Tedeschi took a strong step forward on Junior Wells’ slinky blues classic “Little By Little,” singing with plenty of fire. She had seemed to nudge her amps up or ask Trucks to do it throughout the show, but at one point she had a visible “fuck it” moment and turned around, gave some knobs a good twist and rode the greasy, overdriven sound to a more intense level of playing. That was followed by a visit from former drummer J.J. Johnson on Lee Dorsey’s “Get Out My Life Woman,” the second nod to New Orleans during the set. Turning back to the Alllmans/Clapton/Dowd legacy that Trucks is the torch bearer for, they took a dive into the Layla bag with an impassioned, Mattison-dueted cover of “Keep On Growing.” Tedeschi and Mattison hit a peak vocally, and Trucks stretched well beyond the vocabulary of the pre-Duane Derek and the Dominoes original.
Despite some strong showings, Tedeschi still seemed slightly boxed in. She left the stage for a few minutes as Trucks led an aggressively outside but truncated “Afro Blue,” brought in by a jagged and haunting sax feature by Kebbi Williams.
When she returned to the stage as “Afro Blue” segued into the stunning original “Shame” from their latest studio effort, Tedeschi was fully in command. Leaving her guitar behind, she inhabited every bit of her lyric and brought the band into focus behind her. The intense, densely-packed arrangement showed off all of the strongest points of the full ensemble and Trucks played one of his best solos of the night. From that point forward, the band’s synergy was in full flower and I was getting the transcendent experience I had hoped for.
Tedeschi held the audience in her palm as the band breezed through John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery” and segued into Neil Young’s “Helpless.” Trucks was tasteful and delicate throughout. When they ripped into the set-closing rendition of Bobby Bland’s “That Did It,” Tedeschi dug deep into her blues bag and blazed through her far-and-away best guitar solo of the night, delivering a vocal performance worthy of capping a great show.
Ignoring calls for “Midnight in Harlem,” the band returned with an epic, 15-minute work out on their “Bound For Glory.” Intro’ed by Trucks at his most melisma-dripping, gospel-tinged state of slide mastery, the tune and the band left nothing on the table. Tedeschi snagged the Bonnie Raiitt Magnanimous Bandleader Award for not only sharing big vocal features with Mattison and vocalist Alecia Chakour on the encore, but also for plugging Eady’s after-show gig at the Toulouse Theater.
I left convinced that I needed to see the next night if possible. My gig was cancelled due to COVID, so I found some tickets. Then, I got called to cover a gig for someone who had COVID, and no one’s in a position to turn down work these days.
But I heard the show was really good.
