photos by Jeff Sutherland
By Steve Newton
The Drive-By Truckers, probably my fave band at the moment–unless I’m in a heavy Gov’t Mule mood–played the Imperial in Vancouver last night, and man were they smokin’.
Touring behind their latest album, American Band, they played some of the finest tracks from that disc, including the school-shooting-inspired “Guns of Umpqua”, the politically minded “Ramon Casiano”, and the lyrically brilliant and just plain perfect “Filthy and Fried”.
Other gems that got the crowd going were “Marry Me”, “Uncle Frank”, “Made Up English Oceans”, and a cover of the Ramones’ “The KKK Took My Baby Away”, but my favourite song of the night was “Righteous Path”, off the amazing Brighter Than Creation’s Dark album of 2008. Fvck me is that a killer tune!
Singer-songwriter-guitarists Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley were in fine form, but when it came to wild guitar licks, the hero of the night was Jay Gonzalez, whose tasty-as-hell lead playing nearly stole the show. He didn’t waste one note as far as I could tell. And his organ playing wasn’t bad either.
I didn’t talk to the Truckers this time around, but here’s my previous interviews with them, in case you’re interested.
