ONE NIGHT DOWN, TWO TO GO.

Them Drive-by Truckers are in the middle of a 3-night run to New Year’s Eve at Washington DC’s legendary 9:30 Club. Above is video for Zip City from the first night.

No Southern Rock Opera last night, though we did get the above and also Life in the Factory, Let There Be Rock, Women Without Whiskey, and Shut up and Get On The Plane from said LP. They also cranked out their killer cover of Zevon’s Play It All Night Long as well as Jim Carroll’s People Who Died.

They sent out Feb. 14 to Barr Weissman and his wife; he directed a film about the band. The stage set has those dark, grim Cooley birds on either side, flanking the band, and a few more on the tapestry behind them. Sugar’s David Barbe (also the band’s long time producer) is doing a great job on bass, which I suspect is a major challenge in a band that famously declines to make setlists ahead of time.

Our prediction about SRO may not come true, but this run of gigs feels like they’re building to a pause point where they take a break, maybe make a new record, or just take some time off. They’ve been hitting the road so hard these last few years, it may be a point at which to take some family time out.

Until our most recent trip to Los Angeles, I hadn’t known that Carmelita was a street there.  It’s a song written by Warren Zevon that was also covered by Linda Ronstadt (and much later, Adam Duritz).  You can hear it below - click through if you’re reading in the tumblr dashboard.

“All the salty margaritas in Los Angeles…I’m gonna drink ‘em up…” —Warren Zevon, Desperados Under The Eaves Photo at El Coyote Cafe, Los Angeles

“All the salty margaritas in Los Angeles…I’m gonna drink ‘em up…”
—Warren Zevon, Desperados Under The Eaves
Photo at El Coyote Cafe, Los Angeles

Warren Zevon & Hunter S. Thompson collaborated on a few things (like the song You’re a Whole Different Person When You’re Scared), and this bullet art — Thompson used to like taking friends out to shoot guns and make “shotgun art.”  Warren did the shooting on this poster for Thompson’s 1970 campaign to become Sheriff in Aspen, Colorado.

Warren Zevon & Hunter S. Thompson collaborated on a few things (like the song You’re a Whole Different Person When You’re Scared), and this bullet art — Thompson used to like taking friends out to shoot guns and make “shotgun art.”  Warren did the shooting on this poster for Thompson’s 1970 campaign to become Sheriff in Aspen, Colorado.

Tons of extra thanks again to the Aquarium Drunkard blog for this video, a 1977 Dutch documentary on the L.A. music scene called WONDERLAND… featuring Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt (showing you the windows at Frederick’s of Hollywood), and Jackson Browne.  The remaining parts can be accessed on the Tube of You by double clicking on this video.  It’s an hour in total, and features:

  • Linda singing “Tracks of My Tears” (ch. 2)
  • Warren taking the crew to Burrito King (ch. 4)
  • …and performing Carmelita (ch. 5)
  • Jackson Browne talking briefly about producing Warren (ch. 10)
  • Warren performing Frank and Jesse James solo
    with a nudie poster on the wall while football is on tv (ch. 11)
  • Jackson’s live performance of Before the Deluge (ch. 15)

Pretty amazing; there’s got to be a market for getting this out on DVD.  The lip synch seems to be off a fair amount, but it’s well worth watching - even if only the parts featuring the artists you enjoy.

“I drink heartbreak motor oil and Bombay gin… I’ll sleep when I’m dead!”~~the late, great Warren Zevon (via ilovecharts)

“I drink heartbreak motor oil and Bombay gin…
I’ll sleep when I’m dead!”
~~the late, great Warren Zevon

(via ilovecharts)

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