Allman Brothers Band to release live recording of 1971 Pittsburgh debut

Oct. 8—Many a classic rock fan made the trip to Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood to see plenty of now-legendary bands perform at the former Syria Mosque.

The 1916 building, with its multicolored facade and sphinx statues out front, hosted everyone from Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry to Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel until its demolition in 1991.

Twice in 1971, it also hosted the Allman Brothers Band, who will release a recording of their Jan. 17, 1971, Pittsburgh debut later this month.

A quick glance at Allman set-lists makes it seem as though they played a lot of the same songs, a lot of the time. And that's definitely the case. You could quickly lose count of the number of shows that open with the classic Blind Willie McTell tune "Statesboro Blues."

But fans of the band know that the Allman sets centered largely around improvisation, pushing, pulling and expanding classic old-school blues as well as original tunes. Sometimes, as in the case of the frequent finale, "Whipping Post," the tune would expand into epic 20-minute rave-ups, courtesy of dual drummers Jaimoe Johanson and Butch Trucks, and the twin-guitar attack of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts.

And while there are plenty of concert bootlegs of the band's shows, a lot of the early recordings are severely lacking in quality.

I have a copy of the band's return to the Syria Mosque in October 1971. And if this new release is anything like that show, it ought to be a real barn-burner.

After an opening set by blues mainstay Taj Mahal, the Brothers kick off the show with the aforementioned "Statesboro Blues," which is largely a showcase for Duane Allman's slide guitar. The seven-song set keeps the classic covers going with Muddy Waters' "Trouble No More," followed by the original tune "Don't Keep Me Wonderin'."

The band's first big radio hit, "Midnight Rider," also makes an appearance, sounding a little more muscular than usual since there are no acoustic guitars involved.

But it's the longer jams that really shine. Betts' tune "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" has always been a beautiful centerpiece in an Allman Brothers set, floating along and exploring jazzy territory before crashing down into the hard-driving blues riff that propels the back half of the tune.

The band also dips back into covers one more time, breaking out an early version of Willie Cobbs' "You Don't Love Me." It's relatively concise here, but you can hear the band developing it into the tour-de-force it would become, with Allman and Betts wildly trading guitar licks and occasionally adding (no joke) the main motif from Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" to the end. On the band's official website, which catalogs all of its set-lists, a commenter notes Allman played a musical tease of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" during "You Don't Love Me."

Two weeks after the October show at the Syria Mosque, Duane Allman would die in the motorcycle crash that forever changed the band. But this new record captures the band pretty near its peak, with everyone firing on all cylinders just a couple of months before they recorded the seminal classic "At Fillmore East."

"The Allman Brothers Band: Syria Mosque" will be released Oct. 28.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .