The second leg of the Drive-By Truckers Southern Rock Opera Revisited Tour is just getting underway as the group travels through a host of swing states prior to the upcoming election. Before they hit the Midwest, though, they made a sold-out stop in NYC to play Irving Plaza, updating their 2001 breakthrough album for the modern live stage.
Opening with the story “Days of Graduation,” Patterson Hood set the tone of the evening before dropping into the overloaded guitar attack of “Ronnie and Neil.” The band used three lead guitarists admirably throughout the night, with multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez taking over to pick and wail on “72 (This Highway’s Mean).”
Hood told the story of his first time coming to play NYC in 1998, driving in rush hour traffic and parallel parking magically in front of Coney Island High before the sing-along started for “Dead Drunk and Naked.” Mike Cooley stepped to the front to sing the first song played that was not from Southern Rock Opera, “Ramon Casiano,” which once again deployed an excellent three-lead guitar attack.
Afterward, Hood took to the mic for “Three Great Alabama Icons” but did not recite his speech on the original record. Instead, he mentioned how disconcerting it is that the record’s themes are still so relevant today. He made crystal clear the band’s political thoughts by repeatedly stating, “Fuck MAGA”, he mentioned his grandfather, “the original Antifa,” who fought for our country in World War II against the Nazis, and how he is making himself explicitly clear this tour so fans don’t misinterpret his lyrics as they have done in the past. Surprisingly, even in liberal NYC, not all in attendance were cheering these sentiments. Still, most of the packed house was in agreement before Hood mentioned they stopped playing “The Southern Thing” because not everyone understood it, but they are playing it on this tour.
After his stump speech Hood requested that the fans act as backup singers during “Wallace”, but not just any support singers, he wanted everyone to envision themselves dressed in vintage 1972 Alabama cheerleading outfits. Cooley kept it less kinky and more direct, leading “English Oceans” in raucous galloping fashion, which seemed influenced by Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western soundtracks, before Gonzalez ripped another excellent solo on “Primer Coat”.
The low end of Brad Morgan and Mike Patton kept things moving all night as “The New OK” had a huge dramatic build before the hard rocking of “Zip City” blasted out. The musical highlight of the whole night was the majestic story tale “Let There Be Rock,” which had the standing-room-only crowd singing the Southern Rock Opera track before the set wrapped up with the trio of classic DBT tunes. The screeching “Shut Up and Get On the Plane”, the chaotically slamming “Greenville To Baton Rouge”, and the gorgeous “Angels and Fuselage” which used a harmonica solo from Cooley and a fantastic piano solo from Gonzalez to close.
The band came back out for a short encore, during which Hood mentioned missing the now-closed East Village bar Brownies and admiring Jimmy Carter, who got to vote for Kamala Harris this week. The band fired up a cover of Wet Willie’s “Keep On Smilin’.” A monster rendition of Neil Young’s anthem “Rockin’ in the Free World” wrapped up the two-and-a-half-hour, politically charged show on a soaring high note.
