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Patterson

Filed under: Imported

Patterson Hood was getting over a cold last night at the 400 Bar. Even on a good night, the DBTs frontman's voice is a raspy howl. This was something different. Hood declared it his Tom Waits set, which is about right.

Despite his depleted vocal chords, Hood plowed gamely on. Equipped with just a guitar and numerous liquids (bottled water, Jack Daniels, Heineken), he delivered 90 minutes of stripped down rock n' roll.

It was a modest, but enthusiastic crowd, perhaps 60 folks. Hood's a ragged, enthusiastic guitar player, not quite in the same league as his bandmates Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell, but amusing to watch.

The highlights came as much from his early DBTs songs as from his new solo album. Early on he kicked out a sneering version of "Margo and Harold," as well as a fabulous stripped down, laconic rendering of "Sinkhole." This was followed by his heart-rending take on Tom T. Hall's tale of an alcoholic housewife, "Pay No Attention To Alice." (As Sparks noted, this was worth the $12 alone.)

The songs off the new album didn't play as well. Neither "Phil's Transplant" or "Uncle Disney" (a song I love) did much for me last night. By mid-show Hood seemed a little weary of the whole exercise, perhaps wondering why he'd dragged his sick ass to Minnesota in December to play two measly shows.

But after another shot of Jack Daniels he closed the show out with a couple of knee-buckling numbers. I'd never seen him play "The Night G.G. Allin Came to Town" (that I can remember anyway), a great song about boredom and alienation from Pizza Deliverance. It contains this immortal line: "Punk rockers paid $12 to be shit on!"

For an encore, with his vocals pretty much shot, Hood somehow howled his way through "The Living Bubba." He's done this song every time I've seen the DBTs. It's the sad, inspiring tale of Gregory Dean Smalley, a Georgia rocker who died of AIDS. Hood played it with the fervor of recent discovery.

He'll be back at the 400 Bar tonight. Hopefully his voice will be in better shape.

On another note, I'll be joining Sparks on The Mighty 1220 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. this afternoon for "The Other Side of Country."

Posted by Paul Demko at December 4, 2004 1:05 PM

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