Kevin Bronson on November 26th, 2008

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[I called in sick for the Hold Steady show on Tuesday, but Natalie Nichols, the great L.A.-based music and culture journalist, has sent along the following review. Buzz Bands owes her one. Visit her blog here.]

By Natalie Nichols

“Rock and Roll Means Well”? Hmm, not sure that’s such a great idea for a tour slogan — after all, R&R’s at its best when doing the Devil’s work — but whatever. At least the pairing of Brooklyn-based headliners the Hold Steady and opening act/band BFFs the Drive-By Truckers was a good idea.

Performing at the Wiltern on Tuesday, the last night of their U.S. tour, the two groups reveled in their mutual love of old-fashioned rock … so old-fashioned that, had the Hold Steady not busted out a Minutemen cover during the encore, one might’ve believed punk rock never happened. With songs steeped in such traditions as the Band’s fusion of country and R&B as well as the soulful flavors of Muscle Shoals, they reminded us that, no matter how often some super-hip egghead claims that rock ‘n’ roll is passé, it is totally still kicking.

Athens, Ga.-based sextet Drive-By Truckers vented their vanishing-working-class blues in an hourlong set focusing on this year’s double album “Brighter Than Creation’s Dark” but also including such older numbers as “Puttin’ People on the Moon” (from 2004’s “The Dirty South”) and selections from the epic 2001 concept album “Southern Rock Opera.” While the DBTs’ music is infused with the Southern-fried rock of acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd (who inspired the latter collection), it’s also rooted in the famed soul/country sound of Muscle Shoals, Ala. — original home of guitarists Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley and bassist Shonna Tucker.

Trading lead-vocalist duties, Hood and Cooley both told hard-luck tales in numbers like “Self Destructive Zones” and the bluesy loser’s lament “The Company I Keep,” abetted by the axe work and pedal-steel flourishes of John Neff and the artful rhythms of Tucker and drummer Brad “The EZB” Morgan. While the lyrics offered gritty takes on Southern cultural decay and barely getting by, the music provided an escape of sorts, as tightly controlled jams sprawled into head-trip territory on clouds of white smoke that at times obscured the backdrop, which was painted with ominous-looking blackbirds à la the current album’s cover.

As the DBTs’ set thundered on, the crowd warmed up to the group that Hold Steady singer-guitarist Craig Finn later lavished with love, praising them as a fave band who’d become good friends. The whole “Rock and Roll Means Well” thing started making sense, considering the suitcase full of Springsteen and Band influences the Hold Steady lugs around (and I’m guessing that “Stay Positive,” the title of the quintet’s latest album, isn’t exactly ironic). Anyway, during the HS’s nearly two hours on stage, bespectacled Finn led the earnest charge with his frenetic, c’mon-everybody-join-in grand gestures, and the audience gave it all right back, especially during crowd-pleasers like the teen-angst tale “One for the Cutters.”

Though the music wasn’t exactly sexy, it was agreeably brainy yet not overly cerebral. Some of the hard-charging anthemic numbers had more than a whiff of Thin Lizzy about them too, but that’s probably due to a shared Springsteen thing — although Finn’s raucous tales told with a literary bent certainly fit into the same school as TL leader Phil Lynott’s. Indeed, the wordplay could be dizzying in such songs as “The Swish,” although the philosophical soul of “Cheyenne Sunrise” proved sparer.

The music stayed in that sort of slightly tweaked heartland-rock bag, getting a bit prog in spots when the solos expanded into the excessive-celebration zone, and veering dangerously close to something like irony when they busted out not only an accordion but also a double-necked 12-string/6-string guitar at one point.

Still, smooth transitions and not a lot of chatter between songs kept the show well on track. It wasn’t till toward the end that Finn began to rattle on — and, this being the last night of the tour, that was totally understandable. During the encore, members of the DBTs trickled out to join in on the Hold Steady’s own take on the Minutemen’s “History Lesson Pt 1,” plus AC/DC’s “Ride On” and the Band’s “Look Out Cleveland.”

By the end of the night, the full membership of both groups (plus someone in a gorilla suit) were on stage, mingling in a giant lovefest that climaxed with an epic rendition of the DBTs’ “Let There Be Rock.” With its references to AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, and, yes, Thin Lizzy, the tune was a perfect summation of the night, which Finn and Co. ultimately capped with the surreal, slightly wistful farewell of “Killer Parties” before everyone took a big, heartfelt bow.

Photo of the Hold Steady by Judson Baker