I saw Drive-By Truckers perform at Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit on election night. As I wrote on social media, "if I'm gonna stress out about the election anywhere, I may as well do it here with Drive-By Truckers.
The whole evening had an eerie feel to it. I was too worried about the election to completely lose myself in the show, which is a shame because the band was absolutely cooking all night. It seemed that Patterson Hood in particularly was full of nervous energy. I know Hood's political leanings and I know he was likely worried about the election as much as I was, but was channeling all of this anxiety into his performance. Of the four times I've seen DBT, this was without a doubt the most incendiary show I'd ever seen.
There were people in the crowd who were looking at their phones at election results. I didn't want to know, though I looked at these folks--most of them middle-aged white people--and tried to surmise who they were rooting for. Though most of DBT's fans, at this point, have leanings to the left, this isn't always the case. I have a feeling the people directly in front of me were Trump supporters. I don't know that for sure, but that is my guess based on their jovial reactions to what they were seeing on their phone screens.
On the subject of looking at ones phone for election results at a fucking rock concert--why they hell would you want to do that? That just baffles me. Live in the moment, you idiots!
I had my phone on long enough to take a few snaps of the band on stage (and I must admit, a brief audio clip), but after that I turned it off. I wanted to be in the moment as much as possible. Given the heaviness of the evening, that wasn't easy.
There was no way Patterson Hood couldn't address the election--and he did. He changed the line "the duality of the Southern thing" from "The Three Great Alabama Icons" to "the duality of the American thing." The duality being the coexistence of understanding/beauty and racism/ugliness in this nation, and how we see it in particular sharp relief now in 2024 (and, without a doubt, in the months and years to follow).
I have buried the lede here. DBT are on a tour in which they are performing their double album Southern Rock Opera in its entirety, and "The Three Great Alabama Icons" is a key song on that album. By the time they reached the end of the album and the closer "Angels and Fuselage," the atmosphere felt funereal. Ostensibly, the song is about an airplane crash. The narrator of the song is in the plane and is facing almost certain death as he says to himself, "and I'm scared shitless of what's coming next." Hearing this song in the context of the election, and having a vague notion that the results would not be favorable, this line took on a whole new meaning.
By about 2:45 AM, in the darkness of our hotel room in downtown Detroit, it was clear that Donald Trump had defeated Kamala Harris, and I was completely and irrevocably scared shitless of what's coming next.
