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.