Where the Bands Are (The Brothers 15 April 2025, New York)

We decided pretty late to go to this concert. Honestly, we didn’t know much about the band, or, well, anything really. But we were in New York, and we wanted the chance to see a show at Madison Square Garden. Oliver had been there before for a Pearl Jam concert, and I’d only ever seen a basketball game there. So it felt like the right kind of spontaneous decision to make.

We browsed both Ticketmaster and StubHub, trying to find tickets for The Brothers that wouldn’t completely ruin our budget. Eventually, we scored a pair on StubHub for section 201, pretty high up, but not quite in nosebleed territory.

Once we had entered the arena and found our seats, I started chatting with the guy next to us. and he happily filled us in on what we were about to see. The Brothers, he explained, weren’t a new band at all but a one‑off reunion put together to honor the legacy of the Allman Brothers Band, 55 years after the originals first got together. Most of the musicians on stage—Jaimoe, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, and Marc Quiñones—had played in various Allman Brothers line‑ups over the years, and this was their first time sharing a stage since a tribute show at MSG back in 2020, right before the pandemic shut everything down. In other words, tonight was a pretty big deal.

Our new friend was clearly a hardcore fan and happily continued giving us a quick history lesson on the Allman Brothers and explained their jam-heavy, bluesy rock style. He also mentioned, with a bit of a wink, that a lot of people boost their experience at these shows with some help from ”recreational substances”. Apparently, the drug references are part of the whole vibe, which also explained the mushroom-covered merch. The guy even offered us a little something to join in, but we politely declined.

The crowd consisted mostly of older white men (our age or older), but there were also some younger folks scattered around, and even a few women. As soon as the band started playing, most people stood up and stayed that way. Some were dancing, some swayed gently with eyes closed, totally lost in the music. The guy next to us and his friend were ecstatic and I saw not only him, but also other people around us, smoking something.

The first hour flew by, and I actually enjoyed the music more than I expected. That said, it was sometimes hard to tell when one song ended and the next one started. There were loads of long, winding guitar and piano solos, a few too many for my taste, to be honest.

After the intermission, the long, winding improvisations picked right back up, and so did the wall of sound. My eyes started feeling heavy, and I had to sit down for a bit just to take a break. It was a lot. Then, miracle of miracles, a tune we actually recognised drifted out over the guitars. We didn’t realise until the day after it hasn’t even been an Allman Brothers song. Nope, Into the Mystic, a Van Morrison cover. Isn’t it hilarious, the one track we could hum along to turned out to be somebody else’s? Still, it kind of made me wake up a little.

At that point, I thought the show was wrapping up. But nope, the band launched into yet another long, drawn-out version of a song before finally leaving the stage. Of course, we knew they’d be back for an encore. The final song of the night was Whipping Post, and then the concert was finally over.

It was a long, jam-filled night celebrating Southern rock history, not really our usual scene, but I’m still glad we went. It was fun to experience a concert in Madison Square Garden.

This was blogpost number four out of five. If you missed the earlier ones, you’ll find links to them below. The last one in the series will be all about our Rock and Roll Tour of the Jersey Shore. Stay tuned!

Sightseeing in New York

A day trip to Philadelphia

Ashley Monroe- concert review