Tedeschi Trucks Band - Aston PA 6/11/14

Tedeschi Trucks Band, Aston PA, 6/11/14

My thoughts have been primarily around getting ready for the upcoming West Virginia camping weekend, but we squeezed in a concert last night with our neighbors. Amp and I had seen the Tedeschi Trucks Band back in 2011 at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby (blog post is here), and loved them. We were surprised to see an upcoming show announcement that they would be coming to the Sun Center in Aston PA, very close to home. I had no idea the Sun Center did concerts, and hadn't been there since our high school graduation was held there...well...a long time ago. I had trouble imagining how that big warehouse-y place would be set up for a concert. I figured they had built a new auditorium for shows like this.

I was wrong. The four of us showed up at the Sun Center at around 6:45 or so for a 7:30 show, and it became immediately obvious that there was no new concert theater. In fact, there wasn't an auditorium at all. There was a stage, a temporary tent roof over the stage, and 1,200 folding chairs on the lawn and part of the parking lot next to the building. Hmmm.

I love an outdoor show. Usually. But part of loving an outdoor show is knowing that it IS an outdoor show and preparing accordingly. On a chilly, blustery evening like today where it is threatening to rain, this would mean sweatshirt, rain jacket, hat, etc... None of which any of us had. In order to minimize the amount of things to bring/wear/carry the girls had specifically not brought extra sweaters, jackets or anything of the sort. So when the rains came (and a very light drizzle of rain did indeed start partway through the show), we would end up chilly and slightly uncomfortable, but nothing too bad.

The gang, the lawn and the stage

As for the show itself, there was a solo opening act whose name I no longer recall writing this well after the fact. He played guitar and sang, and was good if not great. The TTB took the stage at close to 8:30 and played for a solid two hours. This tour was in support of their recent album Made Up Mind, and was a good mix of new material, earlier TTB and solo act songs, and a variety of covers.

I gushed about the quality of the show, the large and excellent complement of backing musicians, Susan's guitar playing and vocals, and Derek's virtuoso playing in my prior post. All of this is still true. The band is still great, Derek is still brilliant, and the outdoor temporary setup at the Sun Center had good sound and good sight lines. Great show.

YouTube clips of our show:

• Setting up the Show....
• Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning, a Blind Willie Johnson cover.
• More and More, a Blood Sweat and Tears cover.
• Encore - Darling Be Home Soon and The Storm

Other highlights included Keep on Growing. The only real disappointment for me was that they didn't do Anyday, my favorite song that Derek did in his solo band days.

A fantastic if chilly evening, and now off to pack for West Virginia.