The Red and Black

Issue date: 1/20/09 Section: Variety

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"Excuse me."

"Sorry?"

"Excuse me," said the slightly balding middle-aged man with a look of distress on his face. "Do you work here? Can you help me?"

Though I've never worked at the 40 Watt in my life, my curiosity got the best of me. I asked him what I could do for him.

"There's a young lady passed out in the men's bathroom. Somebody should call her friends."

Realizing that I was in slightly over my head, I directed the gentleman to the nearest staff member. It was 10 o'clock, and the night was just getting started. Already there had been casualties. The crowd was starting to stretch their drinking muscles, for the hometown heroes had returned. Drive-By Truckers was playing tonight.

The Drive-By Truckers represents everything that is still good, and has always been good, about the South. The songs slide easily into your mind the way homemade ice cream slides down your throat on a hot day.

This past weekend was no hot summer day. Despite one of the coldest streaks thus far this winter, all three shows were sold out, packed to capacity. Though the cold was merciless outside, with the 40 Watt's wall-to-wall crowd, it was just warm enough to defrost the icicles that had been forming around the marrow in your bones all day.

Guitarist Mike Cooley radiated the cool energy of an old-Western gunslingin' preacher: tragically wise, comfortable in his skin, and just as willing to save your soul or send you to hell, depending on how you act. He looked around the crowded club as he lit a cigarette on stage, almost daring somebody to stop him. His voice, hardened by years of drinking, smoking and living the dream, sounded like gravel covered in velvet, beautiful and rough at the same time.

Patterson Hood, who shares guitar and vocal duties with Cooley, isn't so much a lyricist as a storyteller. It's not that Hood doesn't write fantastic songs; it's just that once you see him in concert, his songs make more sense. On the band's studio recordings, Cooley's songs have a more traditional design, whereas Hood's often give you nothing of their back stories. They're more of a quick impression of a situation.

In concert, the rest of the band will do something of an introductory jam, improvising on the basic tune of the song. Meanwhile, Hood will tell the back story of the song he's about to sing. He takes you back to exactly where he was when he wrote this song, the situational back story that oftentimes you would never have been able to deduce on your own.

Continued...

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