Athens Homecoming Shows January 17, 18 & 19 2013

[njMark]

There were quite a few girls on the dance floor dressed to kill themselves it seemed. Heels like that and large amounts of alcohol make for dangerous/comical dancing

[Clams]

Such a great time tonight. One comment, if I may be so bold as to speak for everyone who was there tonight: Please, MORE JAY GONZALES ON GUITAR!!! His guitar elevates the Rock Show.

[beantownbubba]

Well. Yeah. Hmmmm. WTF to say about night 1? Probably easier to go w/ the random observations first before trying for the big picture.

W/out doubt the trip from Atlanta to Athens sucks. I'm thinking the only solution is to arrive on Wednesday next year; at least it will take the time pressure off.

Caleb at Farm 255 is probably my favorite bartender of all time. Great guy, very knowledgeable and a great mixologist.

My clear impression was that this was the youngest crowd i've seen at a DBT show at least in years, perhaps ever. As i've said before i think skewing a little younger can only be a good thing. Perhaps that's why there seemed to be more dancing than usual, but whether it's related or not, there definitely seemed to be more people dancing and damn, many of them were good looking.

This is on me, not the band, but boy did stage right look empty w/out mr. neff. Just didn't feel right; sort of unbalanced or something.

"Hell No I Aint Happy," "Zip City" and "Buttholeville/State Trooper" were all titanic. Totally over the top incredible.

One way (and it's just one way) to look at the quality of the rock show is to ask when i felt like I got my money's worth. Sometimes that's been as early as the 3d or 4th song; tonite it was at about "Women W/out Whiskey" which was most of the way into the main set.

Kudos to dogstar for predicting the opener ("PPOTM") as soon as he heard the first notes of Gil Scott Heron's "Whitey on the Moon."

The band played no country-ish tunes. I assume that was an acknowledgement of the pedal steel hole Neff left. It also seemed like the set was a bit more structured than usual w/ not every song being an audible. Given the "no set list mythology" of the band, that's kind of a big thing, but I honestly don't know if it was true, it just seemed that way at times - makes sense w/ Jay having to switch back & forth between guitar & keys, but like i said, that's just my impression, I'm not sure about it.

Either a whole bunch of guys were falling down drunk over each other or there were a substantial number of gay couples in the audience. I believe that Georgia still has anti-sodomy laws on the books so that's kind of an interesting disconnect.

I have firmly decided not to overthink Patterson's dedication of "Heathens" to folks who traveled to the show. Maybe it meant something, maybe it was just the next song up. It was nice that he recognized the many travelers and i'll leave it at that. On a related note, 3DD was very well represented. We were everywhere, w/ more people scheduled to come each remaining day. Nice. It was wonderful to renew so many acquaintances/friendships and i look forward to much more of that as the wkend progresses. Yes, Mrs. Swamp is here and Mr. Swamp took an appropriate ration of shit for his, ummmm, misleading comments of the other day.

So what about the big picture? This is a great band, w/out doubt. If u didn't know the "neff story" i doubt you'd notice anything amiss at all. There's great talent all over this band and they played their hearts out. But for those of us who are familiar w/ the songs, albums and live shows, there's no question that it's different. I love Jay on keys, i love what that brings to the band's overall sound and w/out neff there's more space for jay to fill and he does so admirably. But even so, there often seems to be something missing. OTOH, as Clams said, the band sounded best when Jay played guitar, or put another way, the missing keys were not nearly as noticeable as the missing 3rd guitar. I don't know if that means Jay should stick w/ the guitar, w/ or w/out another keyboard player or if Jay should stick to keys w/ someone else coming in on guitar, but to me, tonite confirmed that this is a 3 guitar band. I've said this before, but Patterson has always been underrated as a guitarist and that was very obvious tonite - he played some great guitar parts and for that matter all 3 guitarists stepped up their games. Bottom line, the band is still in transition, and for a band in transition they're pretty fuckin' awesome. In a related development, I've heard Matt Patton playing on streams before but this is the first time I've seen him live w/ the band. He's a great fit.

If tonite was the floor, the next 2 nites are going to be pretty darn spectacular. I can't wait!

[beantownbubba]

And another thing: "Uncle Frank" is a freakin' amazing song. I love it more every time i hear it and i loved it the first time i heard it.

[sloansimpson]

http://southernshelter.com/2013/01/drive-by-truckers-40-watt-club-2013-01-17/

[gepman]

http://southernshelter.com/2013/01/drive-by-truckers-40-watt-club-2013-01-17/

Quick work, Sloan, much appreciated as always...

[emandrisdad]

pictures and commentary in real time, please.

thank you.

Why the fuck did they put Athens so far from Atlanta? This ride sucks.

You drove how many miles last summer for the Hood/Cooley show in Richmond? That drive should be a walk in the park for you.

[Fool No Where]

eastbound and down. see ya'll muthafuckahs at the rawk show!

[Dice]

I'm looking for two for tonight. Had a couple of buds decide they wanted in at the last minute. Thanks

[Jim&Jewell]

http://southernshelter.com/2013/01/drive-by-truckers-40-watt-club-2013-01-17/

The link stopped working for me.

[Jim&Jewell]

It's back now. Many thanks for the stream. I had a blast listening last night. Found an empty Maker's Mark bottle by the fireplace this morning. Time to get ready to do it again! Daddy needs a bloody mary. I don't remember the introductions. Who was on bass?

[gordonlw]

patton.

[Clams]

Bad news. Apparently Craig Lieske had a heart attack and passed away this morning. For those who don't know, Craig was the DBT road crew/merch guy (and so much more). Really sad down here. RIP.

[gordonlw]

what??

[cortez the killer]

Bad news. Apparently Craig Lieske had a heart attack and passed away this morning. For those who don't know, Craig was the DBT road crew/merch guy (and so much more). Really sad down here. RIP.

Wow! That's awful news indeed.

R.I.P.

[gordonlw]

my source for last night

http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=561473

so sad about craig. glad I got to see him last night. rip

[UTHeathen]

Bad news. Apparently Craig Lieske had a heart attack and passed away this morning. For those who don't know, Craig was the DBT road crew/merch guy (and so much more). Really sad down here. RIP.

This is horrible news. I spoke to Craig many times at the merch table and he was always very gracious and remembered me across the months and miles (at least he pretended to). The last time I saw Craig was on stage at the Fillmore sporting his striped jacket and playing guitar during the encore. It's sad day for the Trucker nation.

[Gaetzi]

Oh man, terrible news. Was Craig the grey haired guy w glasses that ran the merch booth?

[headhunter]

Bad news. Apparently Craig Lieske had a heart attack and passed away this morning. For those who don't know, Craig was the DBT road crew/merch guy (and so much more). Really sad down here. RIP.

Really sad to hear this. Such a nice guy.

[Jim&Jewell]

So sad. I bought some stuff in Wilmington last April. He struck up a conversation with me. Super nice person. We were mourning the death of Levon Helm who passed away the day before that show. Condolences from my family to the DBT family.

[Clams]

Lots of sadness here today. Nobody really knows what to expect tonight. Should be pretty intense.

[Smitty]

Last night was the jammiest I've ever heard DBT (atleast since around TDS tour).

[Smitty]

stolen from facebook

[theco.Ikeep]

This news makes my heart so sad.
Like many of yall, I knew Craig from the merch table. He always was so pleasant
& I could have a convo w/ him about anything.
I recently had the pleasure of meeting his significant other, Melinda & she's just as rad.
Sending her good vibes & hope it's helping her to have all those people that loved Craig
around her right now.
Yall in Athens ROCK OUT for those of us at home....believe me, we'll be listening

[Clams]

[Jim&Jewell]

Is the stream the same link as last night?

[theco.Ikeep]

Is the stream the same link as last night?

I'm hoping so....I have it up right now & he's currently offline.

[chickenwingpuke]

streaming right now* at least something is, on tds

[blackwll]

Oh man, terrible news. Was Craig the grey haired guy w glasses that ran the merch booth?

Yes, he was. RIP. At least he went out rockin'.

[Clams]

Rock show's gonna be fierce tonight.