[Rob In Stereo]  The Art of the Rock Show

Courtesy Drive By Truckers

The Drive-By Truckers aren’t your average rock ‘n’ roll band. See them June 26 at Hal & Mal’s.

by Rob Hamilton
June 16, 2010

My first rock show was in sixth grade. I saw the Smashing Pumpkins on their Infinite Sadness Tour. Guitarist James Iha and bassist D’arcy bounced around on the immense stage as they played, while Billy Corgan moaned and wailed into the microphone like he was dictating his suicide note. This was energy and passion. The show instantly became a concert benchmark for me.

As the years went by, though, I realized that maybe what I had seen wasn’t necessarily as good as I thought it had been. The more bands I saw, the more I realized I was watching the same show with different characters. The lead singer always stood at the microphone and sang, eyes closed, passionately pleading and howling. Other band members jumped around, demonstratively whipping the necks of their instruments up and down and side-to-side, in a display, I suppose, of their uncontrollable aggression.

Eventually, it just stopped working for me.

The first time I saw the Drive-By Truckers was 2002, and this concert changed everything. The band alternated between arena rock and country without losing an ounce of urgency—their sound always tinged with musical and mythological Southern influence.

But it wasn’t just the music that made it such a great concert. It was the first time I felt a genuine connection between a band and the crowd. One of the memories that sticks with me was Patterson Hood, the lead singer, and then-guitarist Jason Isbell looking at each other and letting their enthusiasm overwhelm them as they burst into huge smiles. These guys were living every boy’s rock-star fantasy, and they knew it. It was a completely organic moment and so refreshing. The new benchmark had been set.

I saw the Truckers again a few months ago in New Orleans, and while the lineup had shifted slightly, that enthusiasm was still evident. They have long been a band representing the lower middle class, a strata that in recent years has been repeatedly brutalized. These themes are naturally prevalent in the Truckers’ music, and while they are always mentioned in their concerts, they are never the focal point.

The band could easily harness their populist anthems to work the crowd into an anti-establishment frenzy. However, they recognize that these emotions aren’t constructive. While their songs about foreclosures and broken homes aren’t always the happiest stories, they do manage to lace them with humor and hope—two emotions that are considerably harder to evoke than unchecked rage.

That is not to say you leave their concerts with no sense of anger at the government and the entitled. It is impossible not to. But those feelings take a back seat to the feeling of unity and proactiveness the band instills in you. After a Drive-By Truckers concert, the few hundred strangers you entered with won’t quite feel like strangers anymore.

The Drive-By Truckers will be coming to Hal & Mal’s June 26 in support of their newest album, “The Big To-Do.”

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