By PORTER MCLEOD – Senior Copy Editor
Southern post-punk staple Drive By Truckers performed at The Georgia Theatre, located at 215 N. Lumpkin Street, on Friday, Aug. 23. The band, which debuted in Athens nearly two decades ago, has played some of the most notorious venues in the nation and never fails to put on the best shows Athens has witnessed.
Photos by Porter McLeod.
The raw viciousness in Truckers frontman Patterson Hood’s performance are gut-wrenching. When combined with the dirty south licks coming from guitarist Jay Gonzalez and Mike Cooley, the result inspires stricken ears and watering eyes throughout the audience.
By the time the band took the stage at 11:00 p.m. the whiskey was flowing and a buzz of excitement passed through the avid fans crowding the Georgia Theatre floor. Without pause, The Truckers began performing their Reagan-era blues anthem “Puttin’ People on the Moon.” The well-known angsty and grim mood that has come to define the Trucker’s sound filled the venue.
As the song came to a close, Hood dropped to his knees and a monsoon of noise thundered over the crowd. Hood began to groan “throw myself off lookout mountain,” and the crowd erupted into a deep roar. The intensity of the band was doubled by the crowd and kept the show alive.
Throughout the performance, Hood’s haunting wail was balanced by a more laid-back vibrato rooted from Cooley. The co-frontman, who noticeably improved his vocal talent since the band debuted, took lead vocals with songs “Marry Me,” “Three Dimes Down” and “Carl Perkins Cadillac” from the band’s earlier album the Dirty South.
The show closed with “Hell No I Ain’t Happy”, a song that epitomizes the entire show in five minutes. As the Cooley/Gonzalez guitar duo were locked together, neck-to neck, and the crowd begged for more, Hood fell to his knees, lassoing the mic around his head and then fiercely declaring, “We love you, Athens,” and they loved them back.
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