Editor's Note: I think the author is referring to the Allman Brothers. But since they were never mentioned, I must assume that he actually saw a band called the "Almond Brothers."

The Almond Brothers are one of those bands that you go to see if you want to see Pink Floyd or the Grateful Dead but are forced to take the next best thing. They are all trippy seventies bands that smoked way too much weed, and as a result, have songs that last more than 30 minutes on stage. I think that everyone there owned about 10 albums of “dicks picks” and several copies of DSOTM. In fact, this was made painfully obvious by the T-shirt content of the place. Over half the people who had band shirts there had Grateful dead shirts. Another 20% had Pink Floyd. The “that guy” contingent was also noticeable, with at least 15% of people having the Almond Brothers shirts. The weirdest shirt there?... some guy had a German techno band shirt.

The concert: There was an opening band, but who cares? (they sucked) When they cleared off, we got to see that the set for the main event was particularly lacking, the only highlight being that there were three drum sets. Three drummers? Who the fuck has three drummers? They only have two guitarists for Christ’s sake. I mean, they were good drummers, but they played too much. At one point there was a 20 minute drum solo between them. The first 5 minutes were cool. The next five were like a set of STOMP gone bad. The last ten were kind of like torture. Then, they all went off stage and the bassist soloed for 10 minutes. I was pulling out my hair. I wanted to leave, but at the same time wanted to hear the second half of the concert. I choose poorly and stayed.

Unfortunately, the Almond Brothers are one of those bands whose talent got caught in the seventies, while the rest of the world progressed. About half of their set was classic stuff, and the other half this new shit that sounded kind of like Yanni with some really awesome guitar rifts and drum parts. (Too bad anything that sounds like Yanni still sucks.) They also failed to play “Rambling Man,” my favorite song by them. (minus points)

While perhaps lacking in musical fun, it was still nice to sit out under a splendid night on the Polaris lawn and just relax. Plus the crowd was very cool. Many people were illegally recording the concert, many many people were smoking pot, and not one person was being an asshole the entire time. I like hippies for that.

Music

While their older material is classic, the 20 minute drum solo took away from the enjoyment.

Stage Presence

They simply got up and played. Hardly any talking, no funny jokes. But they could really play and they knew it.

Venue

The only thing they used was the giant screen to display trippy images for their songs. It was like a shitty Winamp plugin... nice try, but it didn’t fly.

Value

A nice trippy evening with some nice instances, but not worth the money unless you are pretty bored.

Crowd (lower is better)

I give the concert attendees one baggie of oregano for being really cool. They were mostly laid back and fun. Few people seemed pretentious, and no one was obnoxious. The crowd was also pretty good looking. The only thing that could have made it better would be more good looking younger girls there. (Most people were 25 and older).