Drive By Truckers

Bike-heads, air guitar-heads, southern rock-heads and middle-aged spread-heads converged on NW1 for a two hour plus blast of good ole country rawk. With no support act, the entire evening was devoted to Alabama's Drive By Truckers. The devotion appeared mutual between band and fan. They took to the stage at 8.30 and finally departed not far short of 11.00pm. By that time I'd had more than my belly full, though I was clearly in the minority.

Their brand of classic southern rock is broad enough to flit from the sentimental country side to pure ballsy, kick ass redneck rock ‘n' roll. The obvious influences are Lynrd Skynrd and Neil Young, though their die hard followers and the band themselves probably tire of the comparison. With a puff on a cigarette here and a swig of Jack Daniels there, the three guitars and interchangeable vocals of Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell, the anchored down bass of Shonna Tucker, and the straight ahead, ultra crisp beat of Brad Morgan, kept the beer flowing and the heads, hair and beards nodding.

The crowd pleasers included Never Gonna Change, Let There Be Rock, and The Boys From Alabama, from their seven album back catalogue. It took until the last two songs before the encore, Dirty Deeds, and Look Out Mountain, that the crowd went truly nuts, and fully let themselves go (well they did up at the front anyway). They belted through several more of their southern nuggets, more than earning their corn, before sending an auditorium full of happy Truck-heads out onto the Camden highway.

Rob Barnett, Music News