Axl Rose once canceled a Guns N' Roses gig in Maine because of a state law that forbids performers from drinking alcohol on stage. Axl Rose will always be tough to please, but booze does have its place on the stage. It makes perfect sense since the rowdy rock-and-roll crowd is already liquored up and ready to go. Don't get me wrong, there is no place in music for Keith Moon passing out behind the drum kit, causing The Who to ask the audience, "Does anyone know how to play the drums?" But there is no better way for an artist to connect with a crowd than to toast to the rock gods and rip a shot of Jack Daniel's.
On Saturday I witnessed something even better. Mid-song and in front of a sold-out Paradise Rock Club crowd, Drive-By Truckers singer and guitarist Mike Cooley managed to hold down a chord on his guitar with his left hand and take a swig of Jack from the bottle with his right, only to jump directly into a scorching solo as if nothing happened. The crowd loved it, and I am sure Jack Daniel's sales doubled for the rest of the night.
Opening with a song titled "Woman Without Whiskey," and also playing the crowd pleasers "Daddy Needs a Drink" and "Dead Drunk & Naked," Drive-By Truckers' openly rustic framework is dripping with cheap whiskey. Being able to stomach multiple shots of Jack Daniel's without affecting your playing ability must be a rite of passage for the members of the band, as the bottle was passed multiple times during the show. Cooley even chased his shot with an Amstel Light. Jack Daniel's serves as the engine grease for the Drive-By Truckers' roughed-up mentality, which lends itself to a haunting level of vocal honesty, almost as if they were baptized in moonshine by members of The Band. Cooley and singer/guitarist and Patterson Hood rarely struggle to find a word that fits and prove that experience can never lie - or maybe that is just the Jack talking for them.
Pearl Jam is the only other band that I have seen that can compare to the Truckers in regard to onstage alcohol antics. Eddie Vedder makes up for his mostly sober band by usually consuming two bottles of red wine per show. Also, during the song "Crazy Mary," which features the chorus, "Take a bottle drink it down / Pass it around," Vedder shares his bottle with members of the crowd. In a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone, he even said, "I've actually tried to play a few shows without drinking. But you know how bartenders sneak a drink in here and there, but the busboys can't? I felt more like the busboy - that I was just working."
Eddie Vedder may be working when he is on stage, but the Drive-By Truckers are always living, one shot at a time.
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