Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Oct 27

‘Damn Fine Night in Glasgow’ (Jason Isbell on Facebook)

Where: O2 Academy
When: 26 October 2017
Support: Tift Merritt

 

Over his last three albums Jason Isbell has emerged as the current hero of Americana and John Mayer has called him ‘the best lyric writer of my generation’ – the waters around Muscle Shoals are obviously drenched in musical ambrosia. He blends country, Americana and Southern rock into an intoxicating, lyrically intelligent stew that captures blue collar America better than anyone since Springsteen. Tonight’s show was moved from the O2 ABC Academy (which has half the capacity of the O2 Academy) and whilst it is not sold out the balcony area was off limits and so it feels like an almost sold out show.

 

Centre stage the 6 foot one Isbell looks every inch a true, if modest, music star confidently singing his soulful, brilliant lyrics and playing superb guitar. Of the 400 Unit, Sadler Vaden (gui/bvoc) is on awesome form and at times, especially on the final encore, exploding into blistering guitar solos whilst be-hatted Jimbo Hart (bs/bvoc), Chad Gamble (dr/bvoc) and Derry Deborja (kyb/bvoc) provide the muscular musical foundation but (as was the case last time I saw Isbell, on the Something More Than Free tour) there was no fiddle-playing Amanda Shires , Isbell’s wife and inspiration of ‘Cover Me Up’.

 

The set began with ‘Anxiety’ which is a typical good Isbell song but is perhaps a strange choice given its lyrics (sample: ‘I’m out here living in a fantasy/ I can’t enjoy a goddam thing/ Anxiety’). But he does seem to be enjoying tonight’s experience. The main set is dominated by the new album, The Nashville Sound (already nominated for a CMA Award – only ‘Chaos and Clothes’ and ‘Something To Love’ don’t make the cut) but ends with a run of three songs from Southeastern. The highlights are ’24 Frames’, ‘White Man’s World’ (surely inspired in part by Michael Kiwanuka’s ‘Black Man in A White World’), ‘Decoration Day’ (a Drive-By Truckers song written by Isbell when he was with them), and ‘Molotov’. But the stand-out is the pin drop beauty of the autobiographical ‘Cover Me Up’ – just as when I last saw him play this live the song stuns the crowd into silence, only erupting at the line ‘But I sobered up and I swore off that stuff forever’ and again loudly and long at the end.

The encores are both covers: ‘You Got Lucky’ (tribute to the recently deceased Tom Petty) and ending with another Isbell penned Drive-By Truckers song, a long, jam heavy version of ‘Never Gonna Change’, with Isbell and Vaden trading guitar blows (it is also noticeable that the two heaviest moments in the show are the two DBT covers). It is a great set with a good mixture of both quieter and rockier songs, hugely enjoyed by the crowd. Isbell mentions his first gig in Glasgow, a hot and sweaty affair with the DBTs at King Tut’s – given his ascendancy don’t be surprised if next time he visits he will be playing the SSE Hydro.

 

Band page

Sample video