COLUMN: End of the Line to perform Allman Brothers’ ‘Eat a Peach’ for 50th anniversary

The Allman Brothers Band’s “Eat a Peach” album is 50 years old this year and one of the Brothers’ better tribute groups is on tour performing music from the double-album live.

End of the Line: A Tribute to the Allman Brothers, will be at the Hargray Capitol Theatre Saturday at 8 p.m. and tickets are still to be had for $15 per person. The Capitol is at 382 2nd St. downtown and information and ticketing are at www.hargraycapitoltheatre.com.

“Eat a Peach” was the Allman Brothers’ third studio album that followed their immensely popular live album “At the Fillmore.” But “Eat a Peach” also included live music, notably a 30-minute, live-from-the-Fillmore version of “Mountain Jam,” an extended jam that filled two sides of the record. Studio cuts included highly popular songs like “Melissa” and “Blue Sky.”

The album was released in February 1972 and, tragically, was the last to feature Duane Allman’s guitar work. “Eat a Peach” got its name from a Duane Allman quote where he said, “… every time I’m in Georgia, I eat a peach for peace.” The album was certified platinum and charted No. 4 on Billboard.

End of the Line calls their show “Picking on the Peach” and this isn’t the first time they’ve been at the Capitol. In fact, they were one of the first groups back on the Capitol stage post-COVID lockdowns. Hubble Beasley, the Capitol’s general manager, vouched for the band’s ability to present one of the best Allman Brothers tribute shows around and their bio which says their sound is “as classic and heavy as the original Brothers themselves.”

Macon’s own Adam Gorman is a guitarist for the group taking the musical role of ABB co-founder Dickey Betts.

But great music isn’t all there is to Saturday’s concert. In line with the original Allman Brothers’ late-60s/early-70s heyday at venues like the Fillmore, End of the Line is bringing a visual element similar to but slightly more technologically advanced than the era’s burgeoning psychedelic light shows.

In addition to the live music, Flooded Sun Liquid Light Show will be doing a live light show. “Live” is the key word in what amounts to an immersive visual-arts presentation in light.

Flooded Sun is comprised of Nashville-based Kevin Conlon and Ryon Westover. Both also play in a band called Red Feather and Conlon has an arts education background that included work in kinetic or motion imagery.

“We’ve been doing this since about 2020 with Kevin doing stuff before that,” Westover said. He said their technique is mostly old-school using large clock-face glass to mix and manipulate colored liquids but there are advances from early days.

“Where they used overhead projectors to project their liquid plate images back in the day, we use digital cameras and digital mixers and projectors to create our images. But we don’t program the show, it’s not run by computers. We’re there doing what we do live in the moment. That’s such an important part of what we do. We feed off the music and the energy of the crowd just like the band does. You won’t see us do an exact repeat of anything - in fact, we couldn’t if we wanted to.”

Add to that the two have done a number of shows with End of the Line and are more “in the groove” with the band.

Conlon and Westover said they’re both into the look and feel of the poster art and light show imagery of the hippie-psychedelic era. However, they said people these days sometimes get confused over the process of what’s going on with them and the end result on stage.

“Responses to our shows and what we do is well received but can also be all over the place,” Conlon said. “It blows people’s minds and they love it but some people don’t get what’s going on. We’re out there doing our thing with the liquid plates where we mix oils and inks and cameras and projectors and we’ve had people fascinated watching what we’re doing, wondering what’s going on. We’re like, ‘Turn around. Look at the stage. See all those lights and images going on with the band up there? That’s us. We’re making all that happen right here, right now live.’ We get a lot of good feedback.”

Beasley’s glad audiences will see Flooded Sun Liquid Light Show along with End of the Line.

“It definitely adds depth to the show and we’re always excited to add to the experience our audiences have,” he said. “Locally, William Dantzler, who owns Fresh Produce Records, has done similar light shows at Grant’s Lounge for another band. Something like that adds to the whole experience.”

Flooded Sun Liquid Light Show can be contacted at floodedsunliquidlightshow@gmail.com or facebook.com/floodedsunliquidlights. End of the Line is at endofthelineband.com.

Remember, today is April’s First Friday, no joke, with all the added downtown actives first Fridays bring to shops, restaurants, nightclubs, venues, galleries and other spots. Search NewTown Macon’s April First Friday event page on Facebook for more details – but one event bears a particular mention and support.

Rhonda “Sunshine” Miller is a Macon folk and mixed media artist whose work has been included in shows and venues such as at The 567 Center, Triangle Arts Macon and the Art Explosion at the Grand Opera House.

Unfortunately, though, Miller is now having to undergo treatments for cancer. To help with medical expenses, Gallery West at 447 3rd St. is opening a one-month, one-woman show of Miller’s work and, for First Friday, they’re raffling off one of her original pieces.

Raffle tickets are $25 each and all proceeds go toward Miller’s expenses.

“She’s such a unique and special artist,” said Kirsten West of Gallery West. “Each piece is really personal and there’s no one like her. They don’t call her Sunshine for nothing.”

Contact Gallery West through gallerywestmacon.com and facebook.com/gallerywestmacon.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.