On Friday night, Tedeschi Trucks Band opened their annual residency at New York City’s Beacon Theatre, which will find the band performing six shows from October 5th to 13th, including shows featuring special guests Steve Earle and JJ Grey on October 9th and 10th, respectively. For the run-opening show last night, the band offered up one of their classic “Evening With” performance, a two-set show without openers. However, the performance was anything but straight-forward, as the group invited out surprise special guests Jimmy Herring and Doyle Bramhall II to close out the night in style.

The first set of Friday night’s show found the twelve-piece firing on all cylinders, crafting a characteristically soulful performance led by the husband-and-wife duo of Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. After opening with Jimmy Cliff‘s “Sitting In Limbo”, the group shifted focus to more classic takes on their original catalog, including a run through “Do I Look Worried”, “Part Of Me”, and “It’s So Heavy”, all of 2013’s Made Up Mind. After takes on “Anyhow” and the recently debuted “High And Mighty”, the band moved into a cover of Sleepy John Estes’ “Leaving Truck”, which was well-segued into Rahsaan Roland Kirk‘s “Volunteered Slavery”. Tedeschi Trucks Band closed out their first frame with “Idle Wind”, making for an explosive finish to the set.

“Sitting In Limbo”

[Video: Sean Roche]

“Leaving Trunk” > “Volunteered Slavery”

[Video: Sean Roche]

To welcome in set two, Tedeschi Trucks band started things off Derek & The Dominos’ ‘Tell The Truth”, setting the tone for the more cover-heavy second frame. After renditions of “Don’t Drift Away”, “Let Me Get By”, and “Sweet And Low”, the group landed in Derek Trucks Band’s “Don’t Miss Me”, followed up by “Made Up Mind” and a take on Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “I Pity The Fool”. However, the major highlight of the set was the appearance of Widespread Panic guitarist and the band’s longtime friend Jimmy Herring, who came out to close out the second set and help on a pairing of two Allman Brothers Band staples, “Blue Sky” and “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed”.

“Blue Sky” with Jimmy Herring

[Video: radarosen]

“In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed” with Jimmy Herring

[Video: radarosen]

The special guests didn’t stop with Herring, however. After a short break before encore, the twelve-piece band returned sans Jimmy but with Doyle Bramhall II, the famed singer-songwriter and producer. Bramhall first sat-in on the group’s encore-opening take on Bob Dylan’s “Going, Going, Gone”, which has become a staple of Tedeschi Trucks Band’s live catalog and has worked its way frequently into setlists since July of this year. From there, the group, with help from Bramhall, returned to Derek Trucks Band’s catalog, performing an outstanding rendition of “Get What You Deserve”.

You can check out a full gallery of photos from Tedeschi Trucks Band’s run-opening performance at The Beacon Theatre on Friday night below, courtesy of Eric Gettler.

Setlist: Tedeschi Trucks Band | Beacon Theatre | New York, NY | 10/5/2018

Set One: Sitting in Limbo, Do I Look Worried, Part of Me, It’s So Heavy, Anyhow, High and Mighty, Leaving Trunk, Volunteered Slavery, Idle Wind

Set Two: Tell the Truth, Don’t Drift Away, Let Me Get By, Sweet and Low, Don’t Miss Me, Made Up Mind, I Pity the Fool, Blue Sky, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Encore: Going, Going, Gone; Get What You Deserve