A quaint little town in North Mississippi

I came to Oxford, MS with unbearable anticipation and excitement and left with my ringing and my mouth grinning. I am not going to run through the entire set-list for my virgin Drive-By-Truckers show but will just give my overall thoughts on the show itself, the vibe from the crowd, and the vibe I got from Oxford itself (also a virgin voyage to this quaint little town).

The Futurebirds gave the crowd in Oxford a nice little 45 minute warm-up beginning around the 9 o'clock hour. They were young guys, not much older than myself and my companion on this trip, Justin Haynes. One guy sported a flannel shirt, a banjo, and had a spectacular beard that was a cross between Garth Hudson from The Band and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. I could not stop staring at it the whole time. The bassist bared a striking resemblance to Adam Morrison, the basketball player more known for his time at Gonzaga than anything he did in the pro's, albeit not quite as tall. The other members looked pretty ordinary. The band interchanged a lot with different guys taking turns on the drums, guitars, and singing lead vocals for certain songs. All in all a good warm-up act for the featured show of the night.

The Futurebirds

Drive-By-Truckers came out a little after ten o'clock a solid 25 minutes after the Futurebirds had left the stage. Plenty of time for those pouring down the alcohol to get riled up into a tizzy, which would reflect upon the behavior of some members as the show wound on. They began with "Ray's Automatic Weapon," a Patterson Hood song from their latest and soon to be released album Go-Go Boots. A good song but a little slow for the opening show for the set.

They preceded to go into Mike Cooley's "Zip City," off an earlier album that truly kicked the show off. A lot of D.B.T.'s songs tell about the areas in which they grew up in which for most is in North Alabama in the Florence-Muscle Shoals area of the state. Zip City is a little town about 5 minutes from my friend Justin's apartment in Florence. He took me there recently and when you hear the song and know the place that they are singing about it just adds to the total listening experience. The band would essentially go onto alternate with both Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley songs with a couple of Shonna's songs mixed in at appropriate times throughout the two hour plus show. They played 18 songs in the first set and went on to play six more in the encore that I am not sure was deserved due to some behaviors in the crowds that I will touch on shortly.

Mike Cooley

There was one point in the show where Patterson called out two people, who basically were not interested in the show and were instead more interested in each other if that makes any sense. Mike called out these guys who were holding up "Rebel" flags, saying that if he were not in Oxford he would shove those things up their you know what. Since the band has started to become more famous and more well-known throughout the country, it has started to attract some people at their shows that are not truly appreciative of their music. As a fan of any band you want them to get big enough so that they can be the feature attraction at just about any show and still be able to tour across the country, but not too big as to attract fans that are just there to get liquored up and socialize during the show. Some people think that since the band is from the South and that they use three guitars that they are a "Southern Rock" band. While they do have some elements of Southern Rock in them it would not be fair to say that is what the band should be classified as. They are not Lynard Skynard or The Marshall Tucker Band. They are what I would call "Blue Collar Rock." They sing about Southern themes and are very aware of the dualistic nature of being from the South in the 21st century. There are some parts of their Southern roots that they are ashamed of and there are other parts for which the band is appreciative of and that is reflected in the songs that they play. So by those guys in the crowd holding up the Rebel flags I can see why it would set them the wrong way. The only other critique I would have is not from the show itself, which was outstanding, is again from idiot "fans" in the crowd. There was some kid, probably a frat boy, but I could be wrong, basically shouting F-bombs at D.B.T. when they left the stage for the first time. My best guess is that kid probably came in late, had too much to drink, could not handle his liquor, and missed a bunch of the Trucker's set and was pissed off that he did not hear the songs that he wanted to hear. I came to realize that they have so many good songs that it is impossible for us to hear all of the one's that we like. That show could last for another two hours.

Alas, I did not let a few bad apples spoil my trip to Oxford to see the Drive-By-Truckers. It was a fantastic show that leaves my ears ringing nearly 48 hours after it ended.

"With Bon Scott singing 'Let There Be Rock...."

Patterson Hood

MB

P.S.- I love Oxford, not the drive over there which is as dull and depressing as you can can get, but the town itself was very nice. There are plenty of good places to eat, bookstores galore, and oh by the way there is a chance you can see Eli Manning walking down the streets of town, which happened to us over the weekend.