Hi all, I am not sure how many of you are into (or even know) Drive-By Truckers, but I'm a huge fan of the band and their frontman, Patterson Hood. Patterson is one of my favorite singer/songwriters; I enjoy his narratives on Southern life. I kind of waffled on going to the show. My wife does not like concerts or clubs much anymore and this was not an all ages show, so I could not take any of my kids (my son is a fan of DBT and Patterson too). I finally said, what the heck. It's $15.00 and a small venue. Go for it. I went Thu night and I was not disappointed.
The opener was Jared Clifton (acoustic guitar), accompanied by Jeff Fielder (Epiphone hollowbody with a nice overdriven tube sound). Jared was in a Seattle-based band named Radio Nationals ( http://radionationals.com/main.html ). I would describe them as country influenced, roots rock. Great stuff. Sadly, they broke up a few years ago. In any case, check out the mp3s on their site. Jared played acoustic versions of three of the four MP3s you find on the Radio Nationals site. He has his own site ( http://www.jaredclifton.com/index.php ) and there are three mp3s of songs he did Thursday night. The 30+ minute set was semi-acoustic. As I mention above, Jared played acoustic and Jeff accompanied on the Epi. I would describe the sound something like Midnight Rambler without the drums and bass. Great set of songs that got the crowd of 75-100 going.
Patterson came out a bit later. There might have been 125 people in the place and I was maybe 10 feet from the stage. It was just Patterson, his acoustic guitar, a beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of water. :D
Patterson chatted with the crowd, talking about the recent DBT tour, work on their album (recorded 19 songs and they may all be on the new album), etc.... He said he 'woke up' about a week ago and realized he had this little solo tour set up and did not know what he was going to do. He could hear the band in his head and was a bit worried. He said Michael Stipe told him there is no shame in using a cheat sheet so he had his folder of songs and cheat sheets 8)
He started off with a couple of new solo and DBT songs (great stuff!) using his cheat sheets. He played mistakes and all (forgot some lyrics, kept playing guitar and read his lyrics on the music stand). He launched into acoustic versions of DBT songs. We were calling out songs and Patterson accommodated us. He stopped to chat after the first four or five songs and said he was not playing anything he had planned to play and thought we were a great audience. We kept calling out songs, he kept playing. Patterson has nice rapport with his audience. Chatting between and during songs, giving history / background / reasons for writing songs, etc... He played some stuff from very early in his career and forgot some words and we helped him out. Any of you familiar with DBT will recognize titles of songs he played: The Living Bubba, Sink Hole, My Sweet Annette, Heathens, The Sands of Iwo Jima, Steve McQueen, 18 Wheels of Love (a song he wrote for his mother); solo material like: Uncle Disney, Pay No Attention to Alice, Old Timer's Disease (a fictional song about his grandparents, based on fact :wink: ).
At about 90 minutes he got up and we gave him a standing ovation. He said if were were going to be that way, he'd just stay and play longer. And boy did he play longer... One of his encores was a laid-back country version of Jenny, Jenny. We loved it and got into a call and response with him on the 867-5309 part of the chorus, he started to smile and said when he plays this back home, the people hate and thanked us for appreciating his version. It was quite good. After another 45 minutes, 4 or 5 standing ovations later (and starting to lose his voice) he left the stage. Patterson played for 2 hours 15 minutes!
A couple of things I took away from this show (in addition to my complete and total enjoyment of the show!):
1) There is nothing like seeing an artist in a small venue.
2) Patterson came across as truly enjoying performing for us and interacting with us. He joked with his, talked to us, shared with us.
3) He was not afraid to play songs he had not played in a long time. He'd just say 'okay, I haven't played this in ages', launch into it and mistakes did not throw him off. He handled them with humor and aplomb... and appreciated our help and participation.
If you can see Patterson in a small venue like I did, I highly recommend seeing him. You will not be disappointed.
Here's his sites. You can listen to some songs and check out tour dates.
http://pattersonhood.com/
http://www.myspace.com/pattersonhood
Sounds like a great show, you've got me interested. That is a very in depth review, when I get off work i'm gonna check out some of his songs.
Great review, Boogie. Sounds like a cool show.
The only Drive By Truckers song I know is the one where 'Freebird' is the punchline. :) Days of Graduation?
You've got me intrigued as well.
:)
Don
Guys, thanks for reading. It was a great show. I'll remember it for a long time.
Boxboy, Yup, Days of Graduation is on Southern Rock Opera. He did not perform that one.
He did another song off of Southern Rock Opera called Let There Be Rock. It was one of those songs in which he did a monologue and described what it was like to live in a small town hours away from concert venues and seeing class b and c acts. It was pretty funny. The song itself speaks to his not getting to see the original Skynyrd. The original show was canceled and then it was rescheduled after Street Survivors released. We know what happened after that. :(
