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The Hold Steady - Photo by Stacy Schwartz

I had a feeling going to a Hold Steady and Drive-By Truckers show that more than a few beers would be consumed. I was right. Both bands tell big stories with plenty of sing-along hooks that feel so right lifting your tallboy can of PBR in the air.

In front of a huge “Rock and Roll Means Well” banner, The Hold Steady came out first to an overflowing First Avenue. I got there an hour before the music started and the main floor was already packed. Craig Finn and company managed, for a moment, to keep the crowd calm with the soft strummed opening of “Positive Jam,” but as soon as Tad Kubler’s thunderous guitar came crashing in halfway through that song, it was over. The crowd was hungry for rock, and THS did not disappoint.

Rushing through organ-laden verses and unashamed guitar solos, the band’s joy never diminished. The guys have energy and sincerity in every note they play. On “Stay Positive,” Finn was talking to someone like me, who goes back to the Lifter Puller days, when he says, “The kids at shows will have kids of their own / and the sing-along songs will be our scriptures.” And there was plenty of singing along. And there was plenty of religion. And I felt a spirit move inside of me when Kubler grabbed his double-necked guitar and Franz Nicolay pulled out his accordion and Finn led us through the confessional, “Lord, I’m Discouraged.” This was one of those shows where the bands could do no wrong and the crowd, at least where I was standing, would have run through a wall if Finn would have asked. I would have gone home sweaty, half-drunk and happy with just this Hold Steady performance, but there was much more to come.

Besides their penchant for epic songs, guitar solos and drinking, Drive-By Truckers and The Hold Steady have something else in common: a pure love of playing classic rock music. How do I know this? I could see the smile on the face of Trucker frontman Patterson Hood. A joyous smile aided by the fifth of Jack Daniels passed between the band and the sweat of a chugging ode to the South.

Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers - Photo by Stacy Schwartz

Having fled the South a decade ago, only now can I embrace the grittiness that DBT put into their songs. They embrace the quirkiness of the South with the muscle cars and muscle shirts, the sweet tea and humidity. They give humanity to the characters that I grew up with. They are the kind of band that can use the word “britches” in a song and have it sound perfectly all right.

During “Putting People on the Moon,” the lights were flashing wildly as Hood sang this song of a man’s life. This is what Drive-By Truckers do so well. It’s a simple sounding three-minute song that holds so much detail and so much emotion that by the time the wife dies in the song, you can feel your skin crawling.

Everybody in the place knew that the two bands had to do some songs together. So when DBT went off stage, we were expecting some sort of magic. Honestly, this is where the tallboys starting catching up with me. In my poorly written notes, the only words I could make out were, “LET THERE BE ROCK!” I guess I didn’t need much more than that to remember Finn, Kubler and Nicolay out front with DBT singing this tale of Southern teenagers and their love of classic rock. I swear at this point in the night, I was so high off of rock music that I was floating. I had taken so much in that when they launched into a cover of Neil Young’s “Rocking in the Free World,”  I could have broke down right there on the spot. You know it was a good show when you wake up the next morning and the post-show buzz has taken the edge off the hangover and when you say good morning you realize that your voice is shredded to bits.