Dave is…
At Drive by Truckers at Webster Hall.
Well, if I am gonna go into seclusion for six frenetic weeks of academia there are worse ways to do it than following up a music and snowboard festival with K’naan and DBT in back to back weeknights.
I almost missed out on this show as I was inexplicably unhurried in trying to get a ticket and so had to beg on NineBullets message board to find one. But I got it eventually, and I’m happy I did, as the Truckers are a show that I wouldn’t miss under any circumstances.
However, this was probably my least favorite Truckers show. It wasn’t so much the band, who performed with their usual commitment, as it was the venue and atmosphere. Webster Hall in the village is really a hipster dance club thing. It’s a strange venue, for example the show had to be over before 11pm so they could funnel everyone out and bring in all the people who like dancing at things called “80s Prom Night”. The real problem tonight was the crowd. Overcrowded to the point of obnoxiousness and with people who seemed to lack the appropriate level of enthusiasm it was aggravating, and without any of my tried and true concert running buddies around to pour bourbon in my beer it was tougher to deal with them.
Contributing to that was the heavy reliance on the new album. I like the new album. It’s pretty solid and has some kick-ass tracks but it doesn’t stand up to some of the others (maybe it’s the inexplicably small number of Cooley penned songs).
The Fourth Night Of My Drinking
Birthday Boy
Girls Who Smoke
Marry Me
Sink Hole
Drag The Lake Charlie
(It’s Gonna Be) I Told You So
Get Downtown
This Fuckin’ Job
Carl Perkins’ Cadillac
The Living Bubba
One Of These Days
Dead, Drunk, and Naked
Guitar Man Upstairs
Home Field Advantage
The Wig He Made Her Wear
Self Destructive Zones
Hell No, I Ain’t Happy
The Flying Wallendas
Zip City
Let There Be Rock
Lookout Mountain
People Who Died
Fourth Night of My Drinking is an instant classic, This Fucking Job is solid, and Girls Who Smoke is alright, but I keep going back and forth on Drag the Lake (Charlie) and I feel like the Flying Wallendas is to consciously trying to be epic.
Still I will take a passable Truckers show with a crappy crowd in an overstuffed venue over just about any other band in any other venue out there so I left happy. And shoot, with a pre-eleven pm curfew I even made it home in time to get some rest in anticipation of beginning six weeks of total hell tomorrow.
I really like Drag The Lake myself and was sorry they didn’t do it in Chicago at the show we saw. I thought the Wallendas sounded more like a solo Patterson song, and honestly (even though I like his solo stuff) it’s not really my thing. They didn’t do that one in Chicago either, but I think the Chicago show was 1. longer and 2. less new-album heavy. Lot of Southern Rock Opera, actually.
Still, it’s DBT, you gotta go. Agreed.
And, oh yeah, Fourth Night of my Drinking = instant classic for sure.