Hold Steady/Drive By Truckers: Demand And Crave Liquor And A Crowd
Dec 17, 2008
Words by Kyle Smith
Illustration by Able Brown
Will rock and roll be in our history books?
You couldn't escape the question tonight in Los Angeles, the final stop of the Drive-By Truckers/Hold Steady dual-headline tour entitled, righteously, "Rock and Roll Means Well."
The Truckers, playing first and traveling six-deep, spread across the stage and went from rock song to rock song with hardly any banter: workmanlike resolve. First up was "Zip City," from _Southern Rock Opera_, a summation of what makes their rock so wonderful: an unyielding belief in the power of sloppy, growling guitars. The song's simple chord progression serves as the backbone and emotional hook of the song, giving those spaces between lyrics and the requisite solo an added beauty.
"Zip City" features guitarist Mike Cooley on vocals; he sings with a confident drawl from which one could imagine in any number of bromidic Southern locales, none as good as a rock and roll stage. A few songs later he returned with "A Ghost To Most," a highlight from this year's _Brighter Than Creation's Dark_. It's identical in construction and tone to "Zip City," but somehow this is okay. Jean Renoir said that the great directors made only one film; indicating both the idea that one single story carried through all their work and, in some sense, all of a director's work wasn't dissimilar. In the Drive-By Truckers, that familiarity works because of the band's storytelling chops.
If Cooley was blessed with the rough voice of a bar hound, his cohort Patterson Hood was given that of a loner. Breathy and inimitable, it's carried more by Hood's skills as a natural raconteur. His diction and speed leaves you wanting to know what he'll say next-perfected on _Southern Rock Opera_'s "The Three Great Alabama Icons" and in full force tonight on songs like "Feb 14," the Truckers' Replacements' homage.
And what better segue than Westerberg and pals to get us Minneapolitan Craig Finn and his bar band The Hold Steady. Most of the Drive-By Trucker's lyrics concern the south and, in many songs, the racism and attitudes that pervade the region. Likewise, Finn sings of Midwestern malaise and parties with the same reverence and importance, documenting his own slice of American life.
Both bands demand and crave a crowd and liquor. The Hold Steady came out with "Constructive Summer," a gorgeous story of young people navigating boredom and responsibility. A key lyric to the song is Finn's call to arms, obligated tonight by everybody: "Raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer--get 'em up!" he yelled to the lifting of plastic cups everywhere. Who cares if you get beer on you-that's part of the act!
I had some bones about seeing the Hold Steady in a larger venue, and sure enough they dropped much of their old schtick: no more "It's good to see you back in the bars!" So it goes with high record sales. But they haven't abandoned their central theory: to do a lot with a little, and to do it often. They share this with the Truckers: both are prolific, releasing nearly an album a year of songs built from the same basic ingredients with no gimmicks.
Their material leaned toward the better stuff from this year's _Stay Positive_: like "Sequestered in Memphis," with the perfectly named Franz Nicolay on keyboards; and mission statement "Stay Positive," a song so well-written I think audiences would "whoa-oh-oh" without any encouragement. Same goes for "Chips Ahoy!," which inspired a ballgame-like Wave of people lifting their beers during the "Gonna walk around and drink" refrain.
The Hold Steady opened the dual encore with the Minutemen's "History Lesson, Pt. 2," chalking it up to So Cal homage but let's be honest. It also served as a siren to the Drive-By Truckers, who took the roomy stage. What followed was thirty of the more inspiring minutes of music I can imagine assembling. A cover of The Band's "Lookout Cleveland" was a surprising midpoint for the two band's (the same can almost be said of their take on AC/DC's "Ride On") , as were the pitch-perfect songs of each others' they played: The Truckers' own history lesson, "Let There Be Rock," and, finally, the Hold Steady's majestic "Killer Parties."
"There is so much joy in what we do up here!" Finn yelled over the song's opening bassline and screeches--the stage, by the way, had over a dozen players, including 6 guitars and one previously unseen man in a gorilla suit. Some of it might be end-of-tour release, but most of the passion glows from these men and women and their love of rock music. Intellectual or not, Southern or not, Brooklyn or not; these guitars and these beers and this whiskey must surely be as revered and valuable as classical music or opera or tribal sounds, right? And not necessarily _these_ songs-both the Drive-By Truckers and Hold Steady seem too modest to have any claims of actual greatness-but those of Thin Lizzy, of Zeppelin, of Springsteen and Skynyrd and all the other name-checks.
At the end of "Killer Parties," it was a delight to watch everyone on stage shed their guitars. The neck jerks down, the strap goes up, and the guitar passes over, straightening it's owner's posture with the release and the knowledge that the night is over. Somehow, these guys do this half the year, proselytizing to the converted and seducing those who've resisted. The Devil plays such a prominent role in rock lore, and sometimes it ain't hard to see why.
