Live Review: Son Volt in Austin, TX



To expect more than a roomful of pearl-snapped button-downs at a performance with alt-country's founding father Jay Farrar at the microphone is reaching. The Son Volt [ tickets ] singer/guitarist manned the helm of the legendary Antone's Wednesday night (2/25), delivering his lightly philosophical oracles to wide-eyed, beer-drinking followers, the vast majority of whom fit the afore-mentioned profile.
Farrar, who caught the eye of the music industry with Wilco head honcho Jeff Tweedy and drummer Mike Heidorn back in the late '80s and early '90s in Uncle Tupelo, has mastered the art of merging well-oiled instrumentation with working-man lyrics. It also doesn't hurt that he's got an unmatched vocal tone, a kind of mid-range surliness that's as close to whiny as a real man should get. Live and flanked by four fellow high-caliber musicians--guitarist Chris Masterson, bassist and backing vocalist Andrew Duplantis, keyboardist/steel guitarist Mark Spencer and drummer Dave Bryson--Farrar delivered a strong musical performance, despite his meager stage presence.
The quick hour-and-a-half set packed in roughly two dozen songs, a mixture of covers, solo work and Son Volt material dating all the way back to the group's debut album, 1995's 'Trace." The first half of the set lagged with low-key numbers like "Highways and Cigarettes," "Hanging Blue Side" and "Tear-Stained Eye," though an occasional crowd favorite, such as the faster-paced albeit downtrodden track "Methamphetamine," would momentarily pep up the mellow but still attentive mass.
"Drown," the closest Son Volt has come to a chart-topping song with a No. 10 peak on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart back in 1996, injected some rock-fueled energy into the evening's performance, with Masterson's single-note guitar riff setting the tone for the remainder of the show. The title track of the group's most recent release, "The Search," made the setlist, as did "Feel Free," a song off Farrar's 2001 solo effort, "Sebastopol." Heavy drums reminiscent of rolling thunder introduced the Nashville country-tinged tune, satisfying the devout fans with a touch of the old school.
The set's end--with its energy and enthusiasm--might have been better suited for the opening of the show, but then again, perhaps not. Though "Afterglow 61," with its crash of drums and electric-guitar hook, had heads bobbing right into Farrar's quieter acoustic cover of Warren Zevon's "Carmelita," it was "Windfall" that capped off the night. The happy-go-lucky lyrics of the early Son Volt song underscored the whistle-while-you-work pedal steel, creating such a satisfied feeling in the club, few seemed to care when the night's final song, Waylon Jennings' honky-tonk classic "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," ended and the stage lights fell.