Well, seeing Drive-By Truckers in LA became a bit of secondary priority (you can read why here), but I caught them nonetheless in the rather fantastic confines of the Avalon Hollywood, which sits across the street from the Capitol Records building. The club has a fairly small floor space, surrounded on multiple levels by an array of loungy seating. I, naturally, was pushed right up front where the sound was generally a murky mess, but also where you could just about catch the ashes from Mike Cooley's cigarette.
Of the many times I've seen DBT, this occasion probably seemed the least urgent. It seemed to me the new material dragged a bit, at least until Cooley laid down the 12-bar sledgehammer of "Get Downtown," which was followed closely by a pounding version of "Told You So," with bassist Shonna Tucker taking her lone turn at the mike that evening. Patterson Hood appeared to bear no ill-will toward Southern Califonians, following the theft the previous evening of one of their backdrops in San Diego. I'm guessing the band was up against a deadline, as the Truckers' clocked in under two hours and the lines of regular Avalon club-hopping clientele were forming up outside just after 10:30pm.
At this point, however, DBT is facing the same problem Wilco has, which is too much good material from a succession of excellent records to possibly squeeze into a normal headlining set. Wico, for their part, seem to recognize this problem as their most recent U.S. dates were billed as "An Evening With Wilco," with no opening acts and setlists that were topping 30 songs. I don't know if this will be Wilco's template going forward, and I realize that's a lot to ask for bands who grind away on the road nearly constantly. Still, DBT's set on Friday was pretty much the expected mix of new stuff along with what most fans would consider classics. "Let There Be Rock", "Zip City" and "Shut Up And Get On The Plane" are pretty reliable encore selections, and the single encore of the Avalon set was made up of all three.
Still, I'm nitpicking because, after all, it was a DBT show, which means I was still nearly pounding my skull into the barrier rail for a good third of the show. The opening set from The Henry Clay People was pretty great, and they took the stage promptly at 7:40pm. Considering the time constraints (again, I'm speculating this was the case), everyone did an admirable job squeezing in as much rock and roll as could be had within three hours. LA crowds, in my experience, can be a bit restrained but are always enthusiastic and generally well-behaved, and this show was no exception.
However, was it worth trekking halfway across the country to see a DBT set that I've seen before and will likely have the chance to see in my own town, probably sooner rather than later? Probably not. But should you absolutely, positively make sure to catch Drive-By Truckers when they swing through your neck of the woods? Well, duh.
