Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers made a dedication to President-elect Obama at the Electric Factory on Saturday night during the "Rock & Roll Means Well" tour his Southern rock band co-headlined with The Hold Steady. It wasn't a song of celebration, though Hood seemed pretty happy about the election result. Instead, it was "The Righteous Path," one of the best songs on Brighter Than Creation's Dark, an album that's full of good ones. It could hardly have been more appropriate though, giving voice, as it did, to those blue collar Hillary Clinton voters that Obama got enough of to win the election last week.
Though it came out back in January, "The Righteous Path" could have been a sound track to the economic implosion of 2008. "I got a couple of opinions that I hold dear/I got a whole lot of debt, and a whole lot of fear/I got an itch that needs scratching, but it feels alright/I got a need to blow it out on a Saturday night.... More bills than money, I can do the math/I'm trying to stay focused on the righteous path."
The Truckers' are a pretty prodigiously talented group, songwriting wise. Even though ace tunesmith Jason Isbell left the band in 2007, they've still got a triple threat going, with Hood (he's the big guy with the beard), Mike Cooley (the Keith Richards of the band, whose "Marry Me," gives the tour it's name; "Rock and roll means well, but it can't help tellin' young boys lies"), and bass player Shonna Tucker, Isbell's ex-wife, who sang her languourous "Houston" on Saturday night.
That embarrassment of riches, though, can sometimes result in the Truckers' losing sight of the righteous path, in three hour shows that meander as they make room for all stories they have to tell. Saturday night, though, the Truckers were kept to a taut 80 minutes or so, as were the opening Hold Steady. And the condensed format - and friendly competition, one suspects - between the two band meant that they were both bashing it out on top of their games over the course of a never-dull riff-happy marathon.
There was a good bit of interaction, with Hood coming out to join the Hold Steady for "Your Little Hoodrat Friend," one of Craig Finn (he's the spastic frontman with glasses, making quote marks in the blue light) during the opening, convulsively-rocking set. And the joint encore ended with a glorious bang, with HS guitarist Tad Kubler and keyboard player/accordionist joining the Truckers for Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World." Neil's got a good double bill of his own coming up, with Wilco at the Spectrum on Dec. 12, but he and Jeff Tweedy will have their work cut out for them for that twofer to top this Saturday night blowout.
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