Drive-By Truckers Concert!

Finally, after too many years of tours not being quite in step with school schedules and summer vacations, I made it to a Drive-By Truckers show in Montclair, NJ at the Wellmont Theatre. Ever since picking up Southern Rock Opera at a music store, it has been my elusive goal to see the Georgia-based band in concert. Mixing storytelling with Allman- and Skynyrd-derived rock licks and country-rock shuffles, the Truckers sport not one but two lead singers, whose complementary nature provided the highlight of the show.

Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood, head scribes and singers for the band, have worked out their relationship over twenty years of playing together. Hood provides the harsher voice of the two—gritty, even angry at times—and a blazing sense of hope and idealism. In contrast to Hood’s dynamism is Cooley’s cool-headed charm, realized both through his smooth baritone and his nuanced guitar solos.

Kayla and I being problems at the Truckers concert

If you’re a rock fan at all, I’d highly recommend a Truckers concert. When they play, they really play. Rolling Stone recently nominated them as the “Best Road Warriors”; Hood reckons that they have played nearly 2,000 shows since the band’s formal incarnation in 1996.

But more shows per year doesn’t mean fewer songs. The audience is rewarded by shows that last upwards of two hours. Last night’s show went on for two and a half hours, spanning 23 songs off of several of their albums. Best of all is the fact that the band often doesn’t go on with a rigid set list; they tend to make it up as they go along. That attitude, coupled with an extensive back catalog, pretty much guarantees that not every show will be the same. Would I see them again? You betcha!