Weekend before last, I received some crushing news. The Drive-By Truckers, the greatest band in the world, were coming to my hometown.

"Why was it bad news?," you might ask.

Well, it was bad news because the Truckers were playing The Sky Bar, downtown Auburn's newest abomination. The Sky Bar, if you don't know, used to be The Blue Room and, later, Dewey's. The only difference is that now they've taken the roof off. If you think that sounds dumb, you're right it is very dumb.

Even worse is the face that when The Sky Bar opened, there was a list; and if you weren't on the list you didn't get in. The list was comprised entirely of either people in fraternities, or people fucking people in fraternities. Even after the list phase ended, some charges of bribery were brought forth, and now they have that place on lock-down.

That said, it looked like there was no chance for me to get in. I was pissed for about three days before finally gaining acceptance that I wasn't going to get in.

Then, on the bus ride home Thursday afternoon, mere hours before the show, we passed The Sky Bar, and DBT's bus was outside. The fire was re-ignited. I was going to get in if it killed me.

I got back to the house, and called Chandler, who was just getting off of work. I told him to meet me downtown. We were going to track down the band and try to appeal to them personally.

When I got there, Chandler told me that he had just talked to Jason Isbell, and that he had put us both on the list.

It was too good to be true. It had to be. Despite my elation at the thought, I still had no expectation, whatsoever, that we would get in. I thought that either Jason wouldn't remember to put us on the list, or we'd be on the list but still not be able to get into the venue.

Chandler and I hoped for the best, and parted ways.

We met back up at my house, and went to The Sky Bar around 9:30.

After parking, we walked to the door. It was guarded by two huge jarhead meatfuck sons of bitches. We gave them our names. We were on the list. Then came the moment of truth:

"Can I see your ID's, boys?"

We handed the tallest one our IDs. He gave them a hard look, and then ushered us into the venue.

I was incredulous.

They put wristbands on us, and told us not to drink. Despite the fact that we could've gotten away with it very easily, I didn't want to risk being thrown out. I can drink at home, but I can't see DBT at home. That was my reasoning.

When we got inside, we noticed Jason Isbell sitting at the bar enjoying an Amstel Light. We thanked him endlessly for getting a couple of 19-year-olds into a 21 and up show... FOR FREE!



Jason Isbell deserves a place in the Nice Guy Hall of Fame (Let's just hope he isn't murdered by the government like all of the other nice guys).

After insisting on shaking our hands, Chandler and I chatted briefly with him about European festivals and Bonnaroo. He told us that he liked European festivals better than Bonnaroo, because he hated dealing with "a bunch of fucking hippie shit." We shared a good laugh at the expense of hippies, and then he left for the stage.

As usual, I got front row right between the two mics on the left (Patterson and Jason's mics). The Truckers came on at 11:30 or so, and opened up with "Do it Yourself" and "When the Pin Hits the Shell".

Here are the pictures:











































At one point, Jason Isbell was so fucked up that he just sort of slid offstage and into the crowd, but that didn't stop the bad ass riffing action.









DBT rocked the fuckin; house until 2 AM when they got cut off by the bar's closing. Surprisingly, they didn't play "Sink Hole" (which I've heard at every show I've been to), but they made up for it by playing a lot of rarities from their early career including "Love Like This", "Buttholeville", "Nine Bullets", "Bulldozers & Dirt", and "Zoloft".

DBT also did two excellent covers. They covered "Rebels" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and "Let Me Roll It" by Paul McCartney & Wings.

I say this every time I see Drive-By Truckers, but it's always true, it was the best show that I've ever seen in my life.

On the way out, Caroline snagged a bad ass DBT/PBR poster (pictured at the top) from the entranceway to the women's bathroom. Thank you, Caroline.