Drive-By Truckers at First Avenue
Drive-By Truckers rock First Avenue, and aren’t afraid to fight
Armed with his acoustic guitar and a head full of steam, Mike Cooley strummed out and sang the upbeat and driving “Made Up English Oceans” to start off a three-hour long set at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Drive-By Truckers are no strangers to First Avenue, but surprisingly, this was the first time they’ve sold out the mainroom. The packed house was treated to 32 tunes in all, including the nearly every song from the band’s 2014 release English Oceans, which heavily loaded the front half of the show.
The English Oceans tunes didn’t incite a riot in the crowd, but the swinging honky-tonk song “Natural Light” from it sounded wonderful. Jay Gonzalez, who traded guitar and piano duties throughout the show, added a old-timey beautiful feel on the keys. The also swinging, “The Company I Keep” from the band’s 1999 album Pizza Deliverance followed, and sounded incredible.
Midway through the set, The Dirty South song “Putting People on the Moon” hit really hard, hammering the Drive-By Truckers into fifth gear and they only gained momentum from that point on. That song was slow, and dark, with gritty and heavy guitar solo. The band continued from there unleashing more of their classics like the hard-rocking “Ronnie & Neil”, “The Deeper In”, and the goosebump-inducing Cooley classic, “Women Without Whiskey”. After a raucous “Hell No I Ain’t Happy”, singer and guitarist Patterson Hood screamed out, wings spread wide, “We are Drive-By Truckers!”, and walked off the stage.
As the band returned from encore break, a drunk guy in the front of the crowd was causing problems. Hood quickly called him out, “Look at me motherfucker, I’m sick of your shit. I’ll stick my motherfuckin’ foot up your ass! Throw that douchebag out!” First Avenue’s always awesome security calmed things down as the band passed around the moonshine bottle and continued on through a massive ten song encore that was highlighted with the upbeat “Shit Shots Count” from English Oceans, and the never-failing cover of Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died”. “Marry Me” from the band’s 2003 masterpiece, Decoration Day, was also spot on and high-energy.
While this show wasn’t as consistent as the band’s also-extensive 2011 performance at First Avenue, it was a solid effort. Portland, OR based country-rockers, Blitzen Trapper, opened up the show with a very nice set of their own, which included a fantastic cover of Joe Walsh’s classic, “Rocky Mountain Way”. It’s always great seeing Drive-By Truckers at First Avenue.
Photos taken for Reviler. Check it out!
Drive-By Truckers
Blitzen Trapper
Drive-By Truckers – First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 03.27.14 Setlist
Made Up English Oceans
Lookout Mountain
Primer Coat
The Part of Him
Til He’s Dead or Rises
Pauline Hawkins
Natural Light
The Company I Keep
Get Downtown
When He’s Gone
Sounds Better In The Song
Puttin’ People On The Moon
Ghost to Most
Tornadoes
Hearing Jimmy Loud
Ronnie & Neil
First Air of Autumn
The Deeper In
Zip City
Play It All Night Long (Warren Zevon cover)
Women Without Whiskey
Hell No I Ain’t Happy
Encore:
Sinkhole
Shit Shots Count
Uncle Frank
Steve McQueen
Birthday Boy
Girls Who Smoke
Marry Me
People Who Died (Jim Carroll cover)
Get Your Ass on the Plane
Grand Canyon
