The Drive-By Truckers brought their “Dirt Underneath” Tour to Madison (sans Spooner Oldham) on Saturday night. The show opener was Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses from Austin, TX. Every once in a while you are lucky enough to go to a show not knowing to much about the opener and you find yourself getting blown away. I have to say that almost everyone lucky enough to catch Ryan Bingham was absolutely stunned by the talent in this band. Ryan’s whiskey soaked vocals sounded like he had lived through it all – especially when the band ripped though Hard Times; a song that brought to mind Neil Young & Crazy Horse/John Prine. Mescalito is his new cd and it is aided by the sympathetic production of Marc Ford -- perhaps best-known for the commanding rhythm guitar lines that powered the Black Crowes during their classic ‘90s period Bingham manages to kick both the heart and the hips into high gear. Check out Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses on the web.

The Drive-By Truckers walked on to the Barrymore stage, cracked open the Jack, sat down and proceeded to captivate the audience throughout the night. I was excited to hear what some of my favorite DBT songs would sound like in acoustic form and with the muti-instrumentalist John Neff (actually an original member of the band and has been touring full-time again for nearly two years). Songs like the beautiful My Sweet Annette (played early in the set) and Heathens (from Decoration Day) fit perfect in The Dirt Underneath set list. But hearing Sink Hole normally a full on three electric guitar assault on a crowd, done acoustically, took on a new form and pulled the listener into the story. Nine Bullets was an early on crowd pleaser; just hearing Patterson yell, “Gonna find a use for every last one!” to a packed house (helping out) was a set list high point. Mike Cooley (aka the Stroker Ace) strapped on his banjo and ran though a great version of “Daddy’s Cup” and Carl Perkins Cadillac; a song from the album The Dirty South, that sympathetically tells the story of one of the giants of rock and roll, Sam Phillips of Sun Records, and the respect shown to him by his stable of artists in the mid 1950's. The Cooley/Patterson team, in my mind, is still proving kick out some of the best written songs of their generation. The set list choices were perfectly arranged and seemed to go by far too quickly. They pulled songs from Gangstabilly, Pizza Deliverance, but mostly from Decoration Day and The Dirty South with a couple from their upcoming release, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. Toward the end of the set they belted out “The Living Bubba” a powerful and emotional song about Cabbagetown guitarist and songwriter Gregory Dean Smalley who was dying of AIDS and responded to his death sentence by joining several more bands and playing constantly, sometimes several nights a week. The words “I can’t die now, cause I got another show to do” say it all.

DBT finished the set and came out for an encore of several more songs which included, 18 Wheels of Love. Patterson went into “story mode” and told of how his mother “ran off with a trucker”. As Hood pulled up his Gibson amp and sat down, they ended on a raucous, mind blowing version of "Buttholeville" which led into "State Trooper" (Springsteen Cover). He got up in front of the audience’s face and pulled the crowd in for one last boost of DBT intensity.

As most DBT fans agree, Jason Isbell added a "key element" to the song writing dynamic on a couple albums, but I have to say that I didn’t miss his presence during this show. I do plan to catch him (with Cracker) at the High Noon on November 8th.

When I talked with Patterson in my interview, I asked how he expected the crowd to leave after seeing a DBT show…his answer to me was, “That they will be as exhausted as us after the show.” We were...but we wanted more. It was said that they plan on some heavy touring in the near future; I would think that they will be back real soon.