Drive-By Truckers @ 9:30 Club

Drive-By Truckers
July 15, 2006
9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.

Confining Drive-By Truckers to 45 minutes a night as an opener for The Black Crowes makes about as much sense as owning a muscle car to make a bumper-to-bumper commute in Washington, D.C. Yeah, your Mustang is going to look good, but that pony deserves to run. After being bottled up for a month, the Truckers had pent-up energy to spare. And when they were unbridled it showed, as they cut loose with a 31-song sonic onslaught before a capacity crowd at the 9:30 Club.

From the time the Truckers � singer/guitarists Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell; bassist Shonna Tucker and drummer Brad Morgan (along with guest pedal-steel guitarist John Neff) strode onto the 9:30 stage for the first time in nearly two years, they rarely stopped for a breather.

The crowd clearly was ready to rock, too. The chants of "D-B-T ... D-B-T" began about a half hour before showtime. The singalongs lasted until the final tune of the encore, a cover of the Jim Carroll Band's "People Who Died." In between, the Truckers mined their catalog for nearly three hours of inspired rock. As an added bonus, the show was Webcast and archived on National Public Radio (npr.org) for those not fortunate enough to score a ticket.

The band was justified in rocking so righteously. The opening slot on the arena tour might be a fair tradeoff for exposure, but this band shouldn't have to play second fiddle to anyone. Having one terrific songwriter is one thing, but how many bands have three? They drew fairly equally from Isbell's odes to family and tradition, Cooley's gritty rockers and Hood's stories of redemption (though none of the three are confined to one writing style). In doing so, they provided plenty of thrills for everyone from the new convert to the I-knew-these-guys-back-when hardcore fan. Though they get pigeonholed as a southern rock band, the material from their newest release, "A Blessing and a Curse," shows a bit more range than just Lynyrd Skynyrd/Allman Brothers/Molly Hatchet (not that there's anything wrong with those bands). They're fiercely proud southerners, but they proved that they've got influences from all over the landscape. Isbell's "Easy On Yourself" veers into Tom Petty territory. Hood's "Feb 14" sounds like something the Replacements might have recorded. Cooley's "Gravity's Gone" is a smart-ass, cynical slice of country-rock. After covering the Rolling Stones' "Moonlight Mile" earlier in the night, the Truckers trotted out their original "Aftermath USA," which sounded like a great, lost Stones track.

The cuts from "Blessing" might have been enough to please the newly converted, but the Truckers made sure to play to all segments of their audience. There were plenty of favorites from the past two discs, "The Dirty South" and Decoration Day," such as "Where the Devil Don't Stay," "Never Gonna Change," "Marry Me" and "Puttin' People on the Moon." They even threw in some candy for the hardcore crowd, a trio of deep-album tracks from "Southern Rock Opera": "Women Without Whiskey"; "Dead, Drunk, and Naked"; and "Guitar Man Upstairs."

The fans, new and old, were clearly loving it, singing along with at least part of most tunes and even reciting along with Hood the spoken preamble to "18 Wheels of Love." During his sweet family ballad "Outfit," Isbell was nearly drowned out by his help from out in the house.

The fans weren't the only ones getting into it. Hood, grinning wide all night, had his gold-top Les Paul slung low and his left boot stomping during the opener, "Lookout Mountain." His obvious enthusiasm made him look like a bearded, scruffier version of Neil Young fronting Crazy Horse.

One of the Truckers' strengths, one they share with great bands from all parts of the country, is the ability to tell stories. The setlist was littered with such tales, many of which bordered on cinematic in scope. "Sink Hole" gives you a little family history and tells you exactly where the narrator would like the banker foreclosing on the family farm to end up. "Ronnie and Neil" details the unlikely admiration shared by Neil Young and Ronnie Van Zant. In "The Day John Henry Died," Isbell strips the folk tale popularized by Johnny Cash and recently revived by Bruce Springsteen of its heroism in favor of gritty realism: "That new machine was cheap as hell / and only John would work as well / so they left him laying where he fell / the day John Henry died."

And one of the bands' greatest beliefs is in the redemptive power of rock and roll, a belief clearly shared by those in attendance. It was celebrated at the end of the main set with "Southern Rock Opera"'s "Let There Be Rock," a song that Hood said "saved his life." Inspiring the loudest singalong in a night full of them, Hood sang: "So I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd but I sure saw Ozzy Osbourne / with Randy Rhoads in '82 / Right before that plane crash / And I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd but I sure saw AC/DC / With Bon Scott singing, "Let There Be Rock Tour." / With Bon Scott singing, Let there be rock!"

Let there be rock, indeed. And let the Drive-By Truckers gain enough exposure this summer to be catapulted into permanent-headliner status.

Setlist
1. Lookout Mountain
2. Where the Devil Don't Stay
3. Easy on Yourself
4. Feb 14
5. Sounds Better in the Song
6. Women Without Whiskey
7. Sink Hole
8. Never Gonna Change
9. Dead, Drunk, and Naked
10. Guitar Man Upstairs
11. Ronnie and Neil
12. Moonlight Mile
13. My Sweet Annette
14. Marry Me
15. Aftermath USA
16. The Day John Henry Died
17. Do It Yourself
18. When the Pin Hits the Shell
19. Wednesday
20. Goddamn Lonely Love
21. 18 Wheels of Love
22. Daddy's Cup
23. Buttholeville
24. Let There Be Rock
Encore
25. A World of Hurt
26. Decoration Day
27. Gravity's Gone
28. Puttin' People on the Moon
29. Outfit
30. The Living Bubba
31. People Who Died