I can’t add much to the excellent obituaries referenced
above, other than to state the obvious (IMO): The Allman Brothers’ At
Fillmore East was the foremost live album of its time, and one
of the greatest ever.
One of the pleasures of seeing Richard Thompson is the
mixture of familiar and seldom-heard tunes, with the latter changing from tour
to tour. This time, most of the “hits” appeared relatively early, with the
obligatory “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” nestled among “Valerie”, “Beeswing”,
and “Walking The Long Miles Home”. The less-heard tracks included three that
were new to me: “Sunset Song” (which kicked off his three-song encore), “The
Poor Ditching Boy”, and “Pharaoh”.
Zara Phillips came out to provide harmony vocals during the
second half of the show, which consisted primarily of Richard and Linda
Thompson tracks, along with three cuts from his upcoming Ship to Shore
album. The high points were “Wall Of Death” (which ended the main set) and “I
Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight”, which was the final encore.
Thompson’s vocals and acoustic guitar work were great
throughout, although he did forget one verse of “Sunset Song”. He was certainly
well-received by the sellout crowd, although it was notably less demonstrative than
those that typically attend his performances at the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis.