San Francisco’s Mezzanine, best known for indie rock, dance, and electronic acts, seemed like a strange place for a Drive-By Truckers concert. Once the music started the polished dance venue felt like a grimy Southern bar. Both bands weaved their particular stories into the minds and hearts of the audience and we forgot about our surroundings for a little while.

The night started with equally grimy The Felice Brothers, who fitfully looked like they just woke up as hired hands in a barn and started playing music. The New York Americana band is well known for driving around the country in a wheezing “short bus,” a miniature school transport usually reserved for kids that need to wear helmets. At Mezzanine they played the kind of Catskill-folk that raised the rafters, quite a feat for an opening band. The subject material was just as filthy and Whiskey-soaked as the brothers onstage. Accordion sighs and ramshackle percussion filled “Ruby Mae,” a murder ballad based on a true story of a cabaret singer strangled to death in New York and buried in Times Square. Continue Reading