Onstage on the 40 Watt membership, Patterson Hood regales a whole lot of Heathens with a narrative about transferring to Athens, Georgia, on April Idiot’s Day in 1994. As he tells it, he arrived on the town and walked on to this very membership, which was already famend as among the best rock venues within the South. Cracker and Counting Crows have been taking part in a double invoice, and whereas he didn’t have cash to purchase a ticket, the doorman let him sneak previous. It’s a fond reminiscence of a formative expertise, and the truth that he’s recounting it onstage on the 40 Watt shouldn’t be misplaced on him.
It’s the second night time of HeAthens Homecoming, the Drive-By Truckers’ annual four-night stand in what they nonetheless think about their hometown. It’s a convention that stretches again to the band’s early days, simply earlier than they launched Southern Rock Opera in 2001, after they have been touring nonstop. “The 40 Watt,” says Patterson, “gave us a spot to return house to.” Through the years, the occasion has grown right into a grassroots music pageant drawing followers from everywhere in the world. Heathens, as they’re referred to as, invade Athens for every week, roosting at bars like Little Kings, digging by means of crates at Wuxtry Data, grabbing breakfast at Mama’s Boy, and convening for a memorabilia public sale benefitting an area music nonprofit referred to as Nuçi’s Area. They crowd into Flicker Bar for a poetry studying on Wednesday, a set by the New Orleans band Free Cattle on Thursday, and a showcase for bassist Matt Patten’s label Dial Again Sound on Friday. Each night time round 6:00, essentially the most devoted of the Heathens line up outdoors the 40 Watt to seize a coveted spot on the rail.
This yr is particular. It’s the twenty fifth Homecoming in 26 years (they skipped a yr throughout the pandemic), and the primary night time on the 40 Watt is the final official cease on the band’s Southern Rock Opera tour. They’ve been taking part in the album roughly in its entirety all through 2024, they usually sound assured, well-rehearsed, and centered — all rarities for a band that infrequently makes use of a setlist and really seldom practices. Meaning the second night time is the primary actual Truckers present they’ve performed in 9 months, they usually appear to relish the chance to decide on songs off the cuff, go wherever the spirit takes them, and lift some hell alongside the way in which. They ship a model of “Self Harmful Zones” that sounds prefer it may self-destruct at any second, and Mike Cooley debuts a brand new association of his redneck crime monologue “Cottonseed” (which the band haven’t performed dwell in a decade).
The third night time is a fan’s set, stuffed with deep cuts and one-off experiments. With native singer-songwriter Schaeffer Llana becoming a member of them onstage, they try to play “Wilder Days”, a minimize from 2022’s Welcome To Membership XIII, though Patterson flubs a couple of strains and cautions the gang that the tune could be past him. But, the Truckers are at their finest after they’re at their rawest, after they’re barely retaining every little thing between the ditches. So what may need been a catastrophe as a substitute turns into a little bit of Homecoming lore: a second followers will speak about subsequent yr.
4 songs into their set on the fourth and remaining night time, The Truckers play “Grand Canyon”, a rousing showstopper they sometimes reserve for a lot later within the present. It felt like they have been throwing down a gauntlet, daring themselves to make each subsequent tune sound like a part of the identical three-hour encore. And for essentially the most half, that’s precisely what they do. They run by means of outdated favorites at a fevered pitch, accruing increasingly musicians with every tune. By the point they shut with a medley of Neil Younger’s “Rockin’ In The Free World” and The Jim Carroll Band’s “Folks Who Died”, they’re ten folks onstage, together with producer David Barbe and two of his sons. It’s a beloved Homecoming custom: quite a lot of people wailing on guitars and creating a stupendous racket.
These 4 nights confirmed off 4 totally different variations of The Drive-By Truckers: the professionals working by means of a beloved album, the perpetual youngsters nonetheless geeking out about taking part in in a band, the rock-and-roll lifers deciding what to do subsequent, and the true believers preaching the gospel to their flock of devoted Heathens. Homecoming has its personal traditions, its personal customs, even its personal tradition, however the band at all times appear to search out methods to make it appear new.
SETLISTS
Wednesday, February 12
Days Of Commencement
Ronnie And Neil
72 (This Freeway’s Imply)
Lifeless, Drunk, And Bare
Guitar Man Upstairs
Birmingham
Ramon Casiano
The Three Nice Alabama Icons
The Southern Factor
Give up Beneath Protest
Wallace
Made Up English Oceans
Plastic Flowers On The Freeway
Primer Coat
Buttholeville
Zip Metropolis
Let There Be Rock
Each Single Storied Flameout
Highway Instances
Ladies With out Whiskey
Life In The Manufacturing unit
Shut Up And Get On The Aircraft
Greenville To Baton Rouge
Angels And Fuselage
Preserve On Smilin’
Rockin’ In The Free World
Thursday, February 13
Lookout Mountain
Uncle Frank
Goode’s Area Highway
The place The Satan Don’t Keep
Tornadoes
Self Harmful Zones
The Driver
Gradual Journey Argument
The Deeper In
Panties In Your Purse
Sink Gap
A Ghost To Most
Heroin Once more
Cottonseed
My Candy Annette
Marry Me
Hell No, I Ain’t Comfortable
Gravity’s Gone
Play It All Night time Lengthy
Maria’s Terrible Disclosures
Too A lot Intercourse (Too Little Jesus)
3 Dimes Down
Grand Canyon
Friday, February 14
Feb 14
Ramon Casiano
After The Scene Dies
Shit Pictures Depend
The Night time G.G. Allin Got here To City
One Of These Days
Drag The Lake Charlie
3 Dimes Down
Why Henry Drinks
Birthday Boy
The Righteous Path
Love Like This
Wednesday
Guitar Man Upstairs
The Driver
Cottonseed
Wilder Days
Maria’s Terrible Disclosures
Do It Your self
When The Pin Hits The Shell
Everyone Wants Love
Marry Me
Buttholeville
Zip Metropolis
A World Of Damage
Shut Up And Get On The Aircraft
Greenville To Baton Rouge
Angels And Fuselage
Saturday, February 15
Carl Perkins’ Cadillac
The Dwelling Bubba
3 Dimes Down
Grand Canyon
The place The Satan Don’t Keep
Steve McQueen
Self Harmful Zones
Adam Raised a Cain
Gradual Journey Argument
Troglodyte (Cave Man)
Cottonseed
The Buford Stick
Shit Pictures Depend
Hell No, I Ain’t Comfortable
A Ghost to Most
Let There Be Rock
Each Single Storied Flameout
I’m Eighteen
Zip Metropolis
Mercy Buckets
18 Wheels of Love
Gravity’s Gone
Lookout Mountain
Ladies With out Whiskey
The Firm I Preserve
Shut Up And Get On The Aircraft
Rockin’ In The Free World
Folks Who Died
