Sound Check wasn't quite sure what to expect from the Midtown on this warm Wednesday night - mid-week shows are tough to gauge. It can either be a total sell-out or a night of chirping crickets, we can never quite figure it out. But a respectable crowd of seemingly die-hard Truckers fans filled up about half of the Midtown's concrete floor, creating what we'll call a "mid-sized" crowd.
Athens Georgia's Dead Confederate opened the show with a slightly psychedelic, reverb-intensive set that included a good chunk of the band's increasingly popular EP as well as some lengthy yet soaring improvisations.
Whenever the spirit caught them, DBT members - whether it was Hood, guitarist Mike Cooley, or head-bobbing, pig-tailed bassist Shonna Tucker - swigged from a bottle of Jack Daniels with the panache that only a true Southern rocker could pull off. If the line for the bar was any indication, this swilling seemed contagious.
Later in the set, they powered through an older cut in "Shut Up and Get on the Plane," before a slowed down, Southern rockified take on Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen," which, once semi-confused fans recognized the tune, turned into a fist-pumping sing along. We're guessing the next time a Cooper tune receives such a warm reception will be when the original goth man himself performs at the fairgrounds at the end of July.
