Concert review/photos: Drive-By Truckers @ WCL/The Queen
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
The DBTs blasted through a glorious set in support of their superb new record.
[3/16] This past Sunday night Southern rock reigned supreme at The Queen in Wilmington, DE, as Drive-By Truckers blasted through a glorious set in support of their superb new record English Oceans. Featuring 9 of the album’s 13 songs plus many of the trusted Truckers tracks like “Zip City” and “Sink Hole,” the concert showcased every facet of the Truckers’ sublime nature. Against a backdrop of Wes Freed’s spellbinding artwork for the English Oceans cover, the show began with Mike Cooley on lead vocals singing Oceans’ opener “Shit Shots Count.” The show alternated between Cooley and Patterson Hood taking vocal reigns, with nary a moment of dullness. Their distinct voices, both sung and written, took the audience on a ride down a winding road of southern-fried mythology.
The two finest highlights surely were the set closer and show closer, as they took all the pent up energy filling the confines of The Queen to propel the audience into a frenzy. “Hell No I Ain’t Happy” brought Hood and Cooley to the edge of the stage with their guitars to conduct a chorus of elated exclamations of “hell no I ain’t happy” from the crowd. As the bookend to the evening, the Oceans’ closing track “Grand Canyon” finished with a flourish of string and percussive activity. Hood, Cooley, guitarist and key-man Jay Gonzalez, bassist Matt Patton, and drummer Brad Morgan jammed and left one by one from the stage. Hood’s guitar lay flat, feedback pouring out and Morgan was the only remaining Trucker, with his percussion reverberating among the ears of many happy fans.
Blitzen Trapper opened.
SETLIST
- Shit Shots Count
- When He’s Gone
- Uncle Frank
- Daddy Learned to Fly
- When the Pin Hits the Shell
- Do It Yourself
- Primer Coat
- The Part of Him
- Til He’s Dead or Rising
- My Sweet Annette
- Zip City
- 18 Wheels of Love
- Hearing Jimmy Loud
- Sink Hole
- Made Up English Oceans
- Hanging On
- Birthday Boy
- Girls Who Smoke
- Self Destructive Zones
- Hell No, I Ain’t Happy
ENCORE
- Natural Light
- Grand Canyon
More reviews and photos by Chris Sikich:
