kicked off their 2012 spring tour with a one-night-stand at the on Friday — it was back to business as usual. While the lack of long-time bassist and vocal contributor Shonna Tucker was noticeable early on, temporary replacement Matt Patton (of the Dexateens) filled in without flaw.
In an effort to crash through a laundry list of songs, the band had no time to beat around the bush or even say much. Early crowd pleasers “3 Dimes Down,” “Used to be a Cop” and “Self Destructive Zones” set the table, but dinner was served when the band cranked out the raucous, electric “Buttholeville” and later transitioned to acoustic turns with “Cartoon Gold” and “Box Full of Spiders.” The gritty rock n’ roll continued with room favorite, “My Sweet Annette” and “Birthday Boy,” and by the time the show ended with an aggressive cover of the already aggressive “People Who Died” by punk artist Jim Carroll, the band had finished most of the Patron being passed around stage and the crowd seemed satiated, if not overfed.
Having attended a rare DBT performance in 2009 where founding member Patterson Hood did not perform due to illness, well, his presence was felt Friday night. Not to say that the current band members surrounding Hood are anything but essential, i.e. Mike Cooley, but to simply highlight the front man’s contributions to the band’s slow-cooked alt-country/southern rock sound. And while DBT is notorious for a revolving door of members over its 16 year career, Hood and Cooley have held the reins from the band’s beginnings in Athens, Ga. and keep it moving.
After a decade-and-a-half of building the reputation as an outfit of workhorse journeymen, the genre is lucky to have them — still bringing it, still trucking.
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Brendan Magee is a Denver-based writer and new contributor to Reverb. When not writing, Brendan is working on his own music as a singer-songwriter in Capitol Hill.
Karson Brown is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb.
