Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Rock Rule No. 472: When the singer of an active band plays a solo show, the between-songs banter will be just as big a part of the show as the songs. There's something about sitting alone with a guitar in front of your most devoted fans that makes the stories flow. This was certainly the case when Patterson Hood, de facto frontman for Southern rock anti-heroes Drive-By Truckers, played at the Birchmere Monday night. He entertained the audience with amusing stories about drinking, Lynyrd Skynyrd and living in the South.

He even threw in some songs -- about drinking, Lynyrd Skynyrd and living in the South.

Hood actually played nearly two dozen tunes over the course of two hours, starting on acoustic guitar before shifting to electric halfway through the set. The switch invigorated him, or perhaps that was just the result of his rising alcohol consumption (which included multiple shots provided by fans). The Van Zants are the ones who get name-checked, but Hood was clearly channeling Steve Earle as he worked through Truckers favorites ("Ronnie and Neil," "Let There Be Rock"), cuts from his lone solo album ("Uncle Disney") and songs he wrote within the past week ("Thanksgiving Filter").

The centerpiece of the show wasn't a song, but a 10-minute monologue about the genesis of the Truckers' 2001 breakthrough, "Southern Rock Opera," a ragged and rocking batch of songs loosely based on the legend of -- you guessed it -- Skynyrd. It contained the evening's funniest anecdote, detailing the biggest difference between Hood's adopted home -- the hip college town of Athens, Ga. -- and his original home in Northern Alabama, the two worlds the Truckers expertly balance in their music. Basically, when fans shout "Free Bird!" at a band in Athens, it's ironic. When they shout it in Northern Alabama, "If I leave here tomorrow" better be the next words you sing, or injury will inevitably follow. Perhaps that should be Rock Rule No. 473.

-- David Malitz