Live review: the Hold Steady & the Drive-By Truckers at The Tabernacle. Sat., Nov. 1.

By Michael Gerber

The Hold Steady and the Drive-By Truckers take different approaches to essentially producing the same experience. This, of course, makes the experiences completely different. The experience: Using classic rock radio anthems to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Success is reached when everybody’s pumping their fists along with loud, guitar-driven songs of defiant down-and-out optimism. Success was achieved quite a few times during the long evening that, despite the double billing, was The Hold Steady opening for the Drive-By Truckers.

The evening began as Bulldog fans were coming to terms with the Saturday afternoon embarrassment against the now hated even more (who knew it was possible) Florida Gators. And it’s safe to say most of the DBT fans were watching college football all afternoon. Like football, DBT give you a smash-mouth experience of collision and repercussions. HS fans, on the other hand, are more like baseball spectators and prefer a well-told story drawn-out at a more intellectual pace. Like the famous George Carlin routine, football fans are out for blood and guts, while the objective of baseball is to be safe at home. HS tell their stories of debauchery from the safe perspective of looking back after sobering up.