Monday night in February, after a shitty, sorry ‘challenging’ day, time for the ABC.
There was support but they stopped before BM arrived, quite good allegedly, from Oregon and also on the other UK dates. So this was the first date in The Drive-by Truckers’ tour promoting their recent 2016 album American Band.
On the night they played a long set of 23 songs, largely from said new album (six) and another brace from landmark album ‘American Gothic’, plus other selections from a very long back catalogue.
There were squalling guitars, immense riffs and lots of material about the American South, geography, wine, women and song…
DBTs are described variously as alt-country, Americana, southern rock and all – the influences that BM detected live tonight are mainly Neil Young, Springsteen and surprisingly maybe The Dream Syndicate plus liberal doses of The Band and even Skynyrd, southern men and proud of it.
The band consists of dual vocalist/guitarists (taking lead alternately on their own songs) Paterson Hood and Mike Cooley, plus long term drummer Brad Morgan, guitar and keys Jay Gonzalez and relatively new boy Mike Patton on bass. The lineup has been more complicated in the past but this incarnation suits a band travelling fairly light and tight, and it sure does work, y’all.
Te audience is about 80% male, quite old really, but ABC around 75% full on an icy Monday night, pretty good going for their fifth documented appearance in Glasgow, and they seemed pretty please to be here. There were lots of exchanged smiles and Hood was doing his wee jumps in the air at key moments during the songs, endearingly cute Mr Hood. Monday night is the favoured time for American artists to hit Glasgow before the trawl through Dublin, Manchester, and to London at the weekend, according to one jaded observer BM spoke to. And of course another group of American musicians were on at The Hydro, the more primped and studied Kings of Leon, well you do what you have to y’all – BM just hopes that any rogue pigeons had been driven out of that venue before they appeared…
DBTs are amazing musicians, the chemistry and the attack from the instruments is incredible, also not really loud but earthy and knarly sounds from non-digital equipment, couple of feedback issues but BM really appreciated the warm yet booming sound mix, just perfect to take in the skill of the playing (no really, not going all guitar tech on yous here!).
They start with a blazing version of ‘Ramon Casiano’, Cooley’s voice very clear in the mix in a story which ‘All Started With The Border’, kinda current. Although there was no political rhetoric tonight, the music and words were speaking for themselves.
‘The Darkened Flag on the Cusp of Dawn’ (and this is the name of the tour) brought ominous tones into the hall, along with some massive guitar riffs and another of the many three-guitar breakdowns which become one of the main events of this show. The three (Hood/Cooley/Gonzalez) together form a formidable trio of string-abuse, tuneful yet restless and adventurous. The songs here are too many to mention, special attention though to ‘Surrender Under Protest’, which provoked a reaction from the fairly staid crowd, almost sounding like a battle anthem (and BM knows obviously that the word ‘surrender’ in any song played in Glasgow has some connotations, especially the ‘six long generations’ referred to in this song…). And accompanied by a searing and paint-stripping guitar solo, oh good grief Charlie Brown.
(and let it be noted that the new album addresses police shootings of black men, these guys are not rednecks, let us just clear this up right now)
There were some more self-indulgent moments – several songs led by Hood about his Daddy, whiskey and good people ending up doing bad things, well BM can take or leave some of that stuff and it drew some of the biggest cheers, they really do know how to connect, so fair play…
Going into the home straight of this lengthy set, it became apparent they had not answered BM’s online request to play ‘This F000ing Job’, their best song by far, IMHO, only rarely played now (40 Watt Club last month BM is informed) – and after the previously mentioned shitty day it would have been perfect, but these are adults we are talking about and they have their views, no Springsteen “write it on a placard” scenario going on here, maybe next time! But it is their best song….
‘Filthy and Fried’ deserves a mention as just the most melodic of the lot tonight, with more soulful keyboard, expressive guitar and narrative of ordinary lives, plus life advice (‘don’t sit on your cigarettes’) plus some sexual politics, just a sublime song, plus more guitar heroics, effortless…
‘Girls Who Smoke’ is another furious rendition, the middle eights of their songs are always the thing. And ‘Marry Me’ is pretty full on, Boss-referencing stuff, more references to ‘Daddy’, but they do it so well. And ‘Let There Be Rock’ is another Southern tale, memories of old gigs, to a ear-blasting accompaniment, are they old men now?
At this point it was all oldies, ‘Zip City’ has a timeless riff and leads into ‘Hell, I Ain’t Happy’, angst and gothic doom, with the stomping rabble-rousing chorus to ram it home. And ‘Get on the Plane’ just ups that tempo one more time, sounding very traditional but their own thing entirely, one more time for the triple whammy guitar and the blazing solos, a few bows, and they were off, around 1035 – was that really 2 hours, think it just was…
Altogether a tour de force of energy, middle aged wistfulness combined with sheer defiance – mucho respect due.
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