Allman Brothers, Jonny Lang Close Out Jazz Fest's First Weekend

The final hour of the New Orleans Jazz Fest's first weekend was a complete axe-off. In one tent you had blues guitarist Jonny Lang strangling his revolving guitars to the point you thought he was going to hurt himself, while on the main stage the Allman Brothers Band's Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks took turns jamming on classic rock 'n' roll tracks like 'Midnight Rider,' 'Dreams' and 'Soulshine.'

Lang chilled out during the more subdued pop song 'Red Light' but almost as quickly returned to his jaw-dropping fretboard antics with help from the audience. For part two, he had the crowd providing the familiar reggae-tinged lyrics "everything is gonna be alright" so he himself could focus more on his guitar work.

As if channeling Lang's two-part jam, Gregg Allman led his band through a raucous seven-minute-plus 'Whipping Post' that opened with Oteil Burbridge's deep bass riffs and featured back-to-back guitar solos between Haynes and Trucks, who worked the neck of his guitar with a glass slide. Trucks spent a lot of the set sitting down due to a foot injury sustained while playing ball with his brother, and even sat out the first song of the encore, 'Melissa.' Gregg Allman fittingly switched from his usual place behind the piano to the guitar on the song he wrote back in 1967, while Trucks hobbled back onstage with his crutches for the closer, 'One Way Out.'

For those heading out for the second weekend of Jazz Fest, which will feature Pearl Jam, Van Morrison, Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck and a bevy of local acts, we leave you with this line of wisdom: If you sin on Bourbon Street at night, spend the next day at the Gospel Tent.