Headlining a nearly sold out show at Seattle’s Moore theater is an unlikley place to see a new band, but that is precisly what everone got thursday night while experiencing the debut tour of the Tedschi Trucks band. The grammy award winng husband and wife team of Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks have esentially combined their two bands into on power house eleven member show band. while the two have a long history with a respectable number of hit songs and fan favorites, thursday nights show was all about this new band and thier new album Revelator, to be released June 7th. In their 90 minute set the band presented entirely new material along with three playful covers songs. This is quite a statement of where these established artitst are in this moment and how they want to be perceived.
Susan Tedechi delivered her signiture blazing vocals and solid guitar work on every number, while Derek Trucks delivered the most mesmerizing slide guitar playing heard anywhere.The songs ran the gammet from rocking blues to gospel and jamming jazz. Anchored by the jack hammer double drumming from JJ Johnson and Tyler Greenwell and the Burbridge brothers Oteil and Kofi on bass and keyboards with the super funky horn section of trumpeter Maurice Brown,Saxaphonist Kebbie Williams and Saunders Sermons on trombone,created a wall of sound that almost overpowered the Moore theater PA system. Each number showed off the almost telepathic communication among the players and featured firey solos and trade off’s with sweeping dynamics
The first cover song was “Sing a Simple Song” from Sly and the Family Stone,featuring terrific vocals from Mike Mattison and Mark Rivers. Next came a nod to Seattle’s Jimi Hendrix with a jazzy psychedelic run down of “Manic Deppresion,” sung by bassist Oteil Burbridge. Next Susan announced “this one is just for fun,” as the band launched into the Stevie Wonder Classic “Uptight” (everything’s alright), which broke down into a mind blowing bass solo and playful double drum solo. The full band then returned to the stage for the final number “Learn To Love,” a raw rocker built on a great guitar riff from Trucks,which will no doubt be hitting the airwaves soon. The audienced responded with a stunned standing ovation as the band exited the stage, clearly wanting more. Trucks led them back on stage for the encore of current single “Bound for Glory,” that tore the house down.
Long time Fans of Tedeschi and Trucks as individuals may have come away from this show with some disappointement in not hearing familiar songs, but no doubt everyone experienced the musical mastery of this new phase in Susan and Derek’s mighty career.
