Venue:
Albert Hall Manchester
Date: 25/10/2017
This was the opening night of Jason’s European tour, and he couldn’t have picked a finer venue to start with. It was my first visit to the Albert Hall, a grade 2 listed former Methodist central hall with a beautiful baroque ceiling and stained glass windows.
Opening with Hope The High Road the set (listed below) consisted mainly of tracks from their latest album The Nashville Sound and Jason’s previous solo album Something More Than Free and two Drive By Truckers tunes, Decoration Day and a blistering Never Gonna Change trading licks with the excellent Slater Vaden on guitar. Amanda Shires wasn’t with the band tonight but her fiddle parts were filled in with some sublime slide guitar again from Slater. The whole band were excellent and all seemed to be enjoying the night as much as the audience.
Highlights for me were Cumberland Gap, Speed Trap Town the aforementioned Never Gonna Change and the closing cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Refugee.
Just a quick mention as well for the enchanting and wonderful Tift Merritt who is opening for Jason on this tour. It was the first time I’d heard her but will definitely be investigating further.
Set list
Hope the high road
White Man’s world
24 Frames
Anxiety
Decoration day
Something more than free
Molotov
Cumberland Gap
Last of my kind
If it takes a lifetime
Flying over water
Tupelo
The life you chose
Speed Trap Town
Cover me up
Never Gonna Change
Encore
If we were vampires
Refugee
The audience:
Mixed age and very satisfied based on the conversations I had on leaving.
It made me think..
With this band and these songs Jason should be selling out arenas but in a way I’m glad he’s not. Intimacy is key sometimes with artists. Or am I just talking rubbish.
He was excited about the gig on Twitter, last night. Sounds like a top night. I can’t believe circumstances have conspired to make me miss this tour – just too much else going on.
Great review.
Apologies for the error above. It should read Sadler Vaden not Slater. Bloody autocorrect.
Cheers for the review, Mr deckards.
I love Jason’s classic “Southeastern” album but have never seen him live.
He’s coming in Stockholm in a few weeks’ time, and it looks as though I’ve waited a bit too long to see the “Southeastern” songs performed live. There’s now only two songs from that album left in the set. After about four years of non-stop gigging, he must have got a bit tired of performing the other songs on that record live …
I’m off to see him next week. Unfortunately at the godawful Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London, which is nowhere near as nice as your Albert Hall.
Is Amanda over with him and missed last night’s gig or missing the tour altogether?
When Kaisfatdad and I saw Amanda Shires live earlier this year, Jason wasn’t with her.
Perhaps they have to take it in turns to be at home with Mercy Rose?
How big was the venue ? Sort of Ryan Adams type artist notKeith Urban so mid sized halls is always going to be his thing.
Cue career trajectory to biggest thing since Beatles.
About 2500. But I don’t think it was sold out last night.
Roll on to the last night of the tour, next tuesday at Symphony Hall. A proper venue!
Looking forward to Symphony Hall but it’s a pisser if Amanda not in band.
Friends had a spare ticket and I`d forgot ro get one myself so I dropped lucky. I totally agree with @deckards, great gig but wasn`t it always going to be that way?
I was disappointed when Jason split with The D.B.T.s but now we have a fab solo artist and a still great band. What`s not to like.
I was at this gig. His gig in January last year at Manchester O2 Ritz was my highlight of 2016, and last night’s will almost definitely be my top gig of 2017. It was a fantastic show, aided by excellent sound. The lighting was good too but comically it failed just as they finished the main set and Jason had to wave at us in the dark. I was just in front of the desk and the poor lighting guy had his head in his hands. I think eventually they did the old “Turn it off and then turn it back on again routine” which luckily worked and allowed the band to come on for an encore
Of course it helps when you have such a strong catalogue of songs going back over 15 years, and even more so to have a such a group of band-brothers to help you play them. As with last year I got the impression that the 400 Unit are genuine mates. Jason walks around when he’s not singing and chats with them and they have proper big band hugs at the end. They played 80% of the latest album, and although this was first night of the UK tour they clearly know the songs inside out from the US dates
My only downside was that the only discernible fuckwit in the entire hall came and stationed himself just in from of me and my pals and proceeded to bounce up and down and regularly bang in to all the people behind him. I wonder how those sort of people live so long
By the way, I reckon by the end of the week they’ll be encoring with Ain’t That A Shame by Fats Domino, in a Cheap Trick guitar-heavy stylee
You should have given that dickhead a kick Vince and when he turned round simply smile at the idiot. Works for me.
Brighton Dome on Sunday. Can’t wait.
Me and Mrs W will be in The Dome on Sunday if I haven’t self-combusted by then.
Although if he doesn’t play Elephant (which I understand went off-set a few years back) there will be one disappointed if not angry if not tearful wife-of-mine: should I tell her now and risk going to the concert on my own or put a manly arm round her shoulder and mutter “Maybe Wahaca is still open?” as we stumble into the cold night air?
Your wife is a woman of taste Lodestone – that’s the song I most want to hear too.
I’m going with my brother. I got two tickets but couldn’t persuade any of my immediate family to go. My brother hadn’t heard of Jason but after investigating online he’s now a convert.
Brum Symphony Hall last night, and, yeah, it was exciting enough, all boys playing loud together, at least to start. Which is fine, but began with little subtlety if loads of panache and not a little technique. I wondered what was missing until Decoration Day, his old Drive-By Truckers song before I twigged that it was because they were better uber-blue collar belters than is the 400 Unit. A bit more variety seemed then to lift the set, accordion allowing the keyboard player to become perhaps audible for the first time, and then, JI switching to acoustic, a few more varied tones being introduced, uplifting the show no end. And we got Elephant, which was terrific, ahead of a storming Cumberland Gap, that has/had me eating my earlier criticisms. 90 minutes and they were off, making us wait more than a perfunctory ahead of the joyously anticipated Refugee.
Good and all that, not always outstanding. having seen the acoustic Isbell + Shires, I think I probably prefer that, missing the violin shades tonight. The drummer, Chad, incidentally, was terrific, a presence akin to Max Weinberg, thumping like a demolition man, without raising a sweat.
And Tift Merritt, was a delight, especially the 2 songs at the electric piano.
You are of course wrong @retropath2 – easily my favourite gig of recent weeks perhaps even this year. Agree the keyboard could have been further up in the mix but they were superb. In conversation pre gig the discussion with my fellow gig goer: ‘Saw them last night and they didn’t play Alabama Pines which I really want tonight’. Me: ‘I really want to hear Elephant which they haven’t played much on this tour’.
Not only did we get both but we got them back to back.
The first encore When we were vampires was astounding and emotional.
Fabulous.
Mrs W will be paying Jason a visit very soon and forcibly demanding the reason for No Elephant in Brighton (TMFTL)..if I was Jason I would be worried.
Oh no. The two songs that my wife wanted to hear most, Alabama Pines and Elephant, were not played in London, though we both did still enjoy the gig immensely.
So the Elephant wasn’t in the room?
There were reports in The Argus of an angry woman being ejected from The Dome whilst still crying out “Play Elephant you fucker!”