In the middle of Tedeschi Trucks Band’s run of ten sold-out shows at the Beacon Theatre, TTB vocalist Mike Mattison and his band, Trash Magic, performed for a smaller but no less appreciative crowd at Brooklyn Bowl on Tuesday, March 24. Several members of TTB joined him on stage, while others looked on from the wings.
Mattison has been collaborating with Derek Trucks for over two decades, dating back to his time as the lead singer in the Derek Trucks Band. In a quintessentially New York moment, the two happened to meet on a New York City subway after friends suggested Trucks hire Mattison as a vocalist for his band. Since then, Mattison has become one of the band’s most distinctive voices and a key songwriter, co-writing songs like “Midnight in Harlem” and earning multiple Grammys along the way.
With TTB, he’s usually positioned just off-center, supporting, harmonizing and occasionally stepping forward. With Trash Magic, he was front and center, and the many loyal fans who turned out for his show are proof that this was more than just a side project.
On his latest album, Turn a Midnight Corner, Mattison, who holds a degree in literature from Harvard, builds a loose narrative around a long-forgotten blues duo who are rediscovered decades later and try to stage a comeback. The reunion is inevitably complicated by money, ego, race and time itself.
The songs don’t unfold as a linear story so much as a set of recurring themes, more akin to poetry: self-reckoning (confronting past mistakes and missed chances), the passage of time, the gap between memory and reality, and the tension between running forward and looking back. Throughout, the simplicity and repetition of the lyrics draw on the tradition of the blues.
Mattison was backed by TTB drummer Tyler “Falcon” Greenwell, who anchored the set with his signature loose but controlled groove; bassist Wesley Flowers; and guitarists Dave Yoke (Susan Tedeschi Band) and Greg Spradlin (Los Lobos), who traded textured parts and solos throughout the evening.
Compared to the scale of a full TTB show, with its expanded rhythm section and horn arrangements, this had more of an intimate front-porch, late-night feel. Midway through, TTB saxophonist Kebbi Williams joined for an energetic cover of Prince’s “1999.”
The Brooklyn Bowl performance marked the end of a short run of dates for Mattison and his band. Meanwhile, Tedeschi Trucks continues its residency at the Beacon Theatre through March 28–two very different shows unfolding just a few subway stops apart.
Setlist: Going Down the Alley, Get It Back, Sore Losers, And I’m Gone, When I was Loaded, Traveler, 1999 (Prince), Lookee Here, Be Like a Train, Waiting for Lola, I Can’t Stand It, Charlie Idaho, Jesus Doesn’t Even Like You, Black Steel (Tricky), River Deep Mountain High (Ellie Greenwich).
