From the first note of "The Fourth Night of My Drinking" to the final whiskey-soaked howl on "Let There Be Rock," the Drive-By Truckers stormed through a 2 1/2-hour set steeped as much in material from 2002's "Southern Rock Opera" as their current record, "The Big To-Do."
A show that long from the Truckers isn't unheard of, but they are becoming rarer these days. So those at Friday's sold-out Vic Theatre show got a special treat from a band that clearly loves playing Chicago. They blasted off with three consecutive songs from the new album before Patterson Hood pulled out the first of many surprises on the night, "Your Daddy Hates Me" from their 2003 masterpiece "Decoration Day."
"Your Daddy" has only been played a handful of times since 2005, so it was great to hear Hood singing it. Some other surprises included SRO's "Life in the Factory" and Hood doing a cover of "Everybody Needs Love," during a five-song encore.
Guitarist Mike Cooley and his unique take on ordinary events continues to prove a powerful counterpunch to Hood's storytelling. The band's co-founders do an excellent job playing off each other both musically and lyrically. The combination of Hood's "This Fucking Job" and Cooley's "Get Downtown" -- played back-to-back as they appear on the new record -- illustrate that as well as anything they've done.
Both songs are about working and unemployment. But while Hood's protagonist is a sympathetic -- albeit angry -- guy whose "family can't live on these fast food wages," Cooley's protagonist is out of work and too lazy to find a job. His wife warns, "you better get yourself up off of that raggedy couch / I'm too pretty to work and I'm tired of you uglying up my house."
This is a band that deserves more popular success. Especially considering their no-holds-barred, Jack Daniels-infused Rock Shows. The lineup has changed often over the years, but the current incarnation is one of the strongest. Hood and Cooley lead the way for bassist Shonna Tucker, pedal-steel guitarist John Neff, drummer Brad Morgan and newcomer Jay Gonzales on keyboards.
They miss the strong songwriting of Jason Isbell, but musically this is the band at its best. Tucker's voice isn't strong enough to take the lead as she did for three songs in the set. Hers is a good voice on the records, but in the live setting seems to get swallowed up by the instruments and space. Yet, sonically her songs fit right in to the DBT milieu.
Playing eight songs off of SRO and eight from TBT-D was interesting because Hood often mentions they played their first sold-out show on the road in Chicago during the SRO tour.
And it's obvious they remain fond of the city. Before Tucker played Gonzalez's keyboards for "You Got Another" to start the encore, she looked around the stage and theatre. Then she sat down and said, "I love this fucking town." It was obvious, Chicago loves the Truckers right back.
Anybody who got there late missed out on seeing a guy who won't be doing more opening acts for much longer. Langhorne Slim played a seamless energetic 45-minute set. Dubbed a folk-rock singer, Slim put heavy emphasis on the "rock" part Friday night. His set leaned heavily toward his latest CD, "Be Set Free," but one of the highlights came when he performed a raucous version of "Hello Sunshine" from his 2008 self-titled CD.
Another gem came when he stepped to the front of the stage to play a riveting "Diamonds and Gold," an uplifting song from his self-titled CD.
But the performance was dampened by a poor sound mix. Keyboardist David Moore grabbed the banjo on a couple songs, but you couldn't hear it despite the vigorousness of his playing. He popped two strings during one of the songs and just kept right on playing. Too bad we couldn't hear it.
All in all, a great night at the Vic. Can't wait until either of these acts come through town again (which by the way, won't be long. DBT opens for Tom Petty at the United Center on July 17, and will perform at Lollapalooza for the first time. Langhorne Slim returns June 13 for Chicago's Ribfest).
Drive-By Truckers