Events

[ROCK] Chemistry is what continues to work about the Tedeschi Trucks Band, now three studio albums along with Let Me Get By, which dropped earlier this year and brings the 12-piece blues-rocking machine to the UB Center for the Arts for two shows this weekend, Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8 with Amy Helm & the Handsome Strangers (tickets for Sunday are still available). Produced by Derek Trucks himself and written cohesively as a band, Let Me Get By marries the raw energy of 2011’s celebrated debut Revelator with the studio polish of 2013’s follow-up, Made Up Mind. The results are simultaneously relaxed and tight—a testament to the band’s uncanny professionalism. Trucks and wife Susan Tedeschi hold down the fort with his trademark slide riffs and her Bonnie Raitt-inspired pipes, but the rest of the players shine plenty bright, with standout contributions from the double-drum-and-bass rhythm trio of Tyler Greenwell, JJ Johnson, and Tim Lefebvre (who played bass on Bowie’s swansong Blackstar) and Kofi Burbidge’s keyboards (check out his Booker T-style organ on the circularly churning title track). Intermittent male vocals from Mike Mattison and Mark Rivers occasionally counter Tedeschi’s lead, and it’s a refreshing change rather than a letdown. From the breezy soul-pop of opener “Anyhow” to the subtle funk of “Laugh About It” and (much less subtle) “Don’t Know What It Means,” the band reinforces its reputation as a groove-driven entity that’s just as capable of turning in something meditative and gorgeous (“Swamp Raga for Holzapfel, Lefebvre, Flute and Harmonium”) just up around the bend. Horns brand the tracks with soul authenticity throughout, particularly on the joyously stomping “I Want More,” which breaks down at the five-minute mark to showcase Burbidge’s flute. Pulling from country blues on one hand and Memphis soul on the other makes for the same winning blend that got the Black Crowes to soar, but on Let Me Get By, TTB presents something significantly more refined—cleaner. It’s also evident they learned a thing or two from spending last summer on the road with Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings.