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When Drive-By Truckers made their splash with Decoration Day in 2003, fans, like me, were a bit stymied finding the band’s past catalog. It would take a bit before their new label, Lost Highway Records, would catch up to the demand. The band served up a refreshing spit and vinegar take on the southern life that many lived and/or wanted no part of. And cleverly done, too.
Southern Rock Opera was their preceding album, a two-disc concept album that followed the rise and fall of a fictional southern rock band, in no small part inspired by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Race, Civil War legacy, cultural struggles, polarizing icons of Alabama… the band aimed high in exploring southern pride and its darker side. To hear that the band was revisiting their rock opera on tour was great news for fans.
The ‘reimagined” version loses two songs by their guitarist at that time (“Moved” and “Cassie’s Brother”) and includes five other songs for modern relevance, per leader and storyteller Patterson Hood. “Buttholeville,” recorded before SRO, is a welcome and obvious choice, fitting in with the underlying Skynyrd theme. The others fit well enough for catching up to modern culture, but lack the acerbic wit and straight-up complaints that defined that era of their career.
No stranger to ad-libbing frequently between songs or political commentary, Hood mixed it up a bit on the recorded spoken word pieces. On “Let There Be Rock,” we learned he also missed seeing The Clash, and on “The Three Great Alabama Icons,” he dropped references to walking by Camaros, Cutlass Supremes and Monte Carlos playing Skynyrd. Not exactly monumental stuff, but he was recollecting the moment. And then it turned a bit.
“So why, you ask yourself, in 2024 is someone standing up in front of me talking about George Wallace? Dammit, has it not become rather relevant all of a sudden? Such is the duality of the American thang.” After equating his grandfather and uncle as ANTIFA fighters in WWII, he added “fuck those Nazi Motherf*ckers!” And later, before “Angels and Fuselage,” he was more oblique. “F*ck Fear! Fear is that thing that stops you from doing what you want to do. Fear is what controls you.” The context followed in the chorus: “And I’m scared shitless of what’s coming next.” That he didn’t call out Trump by name was a surprise.
A lighter but still unsettling observation was that a band that isn’t that old has a demographic both better suited and well-heeled enough to flip a general admission pit to reserved floor seating. There’s another duality thing in there somewhere, not unlike noting that a band who shared a whiskey jug on stage for many years now drinks bottled water.
The band’s Atlanta stop was near the end of their tour, not that it showed or mattered. DBT always delivers live, and there was plenty of energy and smiles among the band members and an appreciative sold-out crowd. The shining star was perhaps Jose Gonzales, who early in his tenure with the band primarily played keyboards and now sizzles on electric guitar leads.
Next up, a Decoration Day and The Dirty South combo tour, we can hope!
Setlist: (Southern Rock Opera unless otherwise noted)
Encore:
