Drive-By Truckers Cover Jim Carroll During Epic NYC Set

The Drive-By Truckers warmed up for 'The Fourth Night of My Drinking,' their opening song Thursday night at New York City's Webster Hall, by passing around a bottle of Jack Daniels, each member taking a hearty swig.

"We figure because we're in f---ing New York City, we'd make it official," said frontman Patterson Hood, a hint of mischief in his raspy Alabama drawl.

Two hours and the better part of that Jack bottle later, the Truckers closed with a cover of the Jim Carroll Band's 'People Who Died,' transforming the new-wave classic into a revved-up cow-punk free-for-all. The Truckers had barely paused all night, rushing from one song into the next, and yet Hood and company sped on, six pairs of feet pressed to the accelerator.

The Carroll tribute was the final tune in a five-song encore that began with Hood donning a top hat and strolling onstage to the strains of Jay Gonzalez's waltzing circus organ. Appropriately, the band segued into 'The Flying Wallendas,' about a family of trapeze artists. The ballad's big-top theme fit with the Truckers' stage decor -- a series of cartoon posters advertising fortune tellers, muscle women and other freak-show folks, each drawn in the inimitable style of illustrator Wes Freed, the group's longtime art director.

If the band has a fondness for circus performers, it tends to write about everyday eccentrics. In performing the bulk of their latest album, 'The Big To-Do,' the Truckers sang of kinky priests ('The Wig He Made Her Wear') and vengeful women ('Drag the Lake Charlie'), among other troublemakers.

On a standout 'Let There Be Rock,' Hood sang about a character less dangerous but every bit as colorful: himself. He prefaced the anthemic number with a story set on January 1, 1978, the day he convinced a friend to sell his motorcycle and buy a knockoff Fender bass, a purchase that led to the formation of Hood's first rock 'n' roll band. The group called itself Breakdown, after the song by Tom Petty, who recently tapped the Truckers to open a portion of his summer tour.

"We weren't very good," Hood told the capacity crowd, reveling in how far he's come. "But we sure did try hard."