Dawes, Isbell Put on Great Show at Rev Room

by Julian Spivey
The Revolution Room in Little Rock was jam-packed on Wednesday night (Oct. 23) to see Jason Isbell and Dawes rock the roof off the joint.
 
Now, I feel as if I must explain that I attended the concert Wednesday night solely to see Isbell, who has become one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters over the last two years and who I believe has released the best album of 2013 in “Southeastern.” I knew he would simply be the opening act to Dawes, who I had previously heard of but never actually heard, but it was an opening act I could not miss. I feel that this explanation is needed because most concert reviews mostly review the headlining act and leave a little space somewhere in the review for the opener. My review is the exact opposite, with no offense intended toward Dawes, who would greatly endear themselves to me by the end of the night.
 
Isbell’s opening 45-minute set was short and sweet and certainly left the crowd, many who seemed to be like me and were there simply to see him, wanting more. Hopefully Isbell will be able to return to The Rev Room sometime soon for a full show.
 
Backed by his terrific band The 400 Unit and his wife/violinist Amanda Shires, Isbell sounded crisp and clear as if you were listening to his record with a few hundred fellow fans, a testament to the fine sound system at The Rev Room. 
 
He kicked things off with a rip-roaring performance of “Flying Over Water,” one of six songs he’d play during the evening from “Southeastern.” Following the opener Isbell performed his only song of the set from his days in the Southern Rock group Drive-By Truckers “Goddamn Lonely Love,” a song that he tweeted earlier in the day he had written 10 years ago right there in Little Rock. The performance proved to be one of the crowd’s favorites, as many sang along and swayed to the beat.
 
Following the somber tale of broken love, Isbell turned things up a few notches with the rocker “Super 8,” the hardest song off of “Southeastern,” as well as one of the most fun tracks from the record. The next two performances proved to be my favorites of the night: “Different Days,” a contemplative folky that is one of Isbell’s finest compositions on “Southeastern” and “Codeine,” the only performance during his set from his fine 2011 album “Here We Rest.” “Codeine” specifically seemed to be another favorite of the packed crowd who intently sang along.
 
Things got a little somber again with the devastating “Live Oak,” which plays like a Western short story, but also includes incredibly personal and emotional lyrics like: “There’s a man who walks beside me, he is who I used to be/and I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me/And I wonder who she’s pining for on nights I’m not around/Could it be the man who did the things I’m living down” — lyrics that certainly were inspired by Isbell’s new found sobriety and new marriage to Shires, who is cute as a button and an immensely talented violinist who showed off her terrific playing at many points during Isbell’s set.
 
“Live Oak” was followed by the much-happier “Stockholm,” maybe the catchiest tune off of “Southeastern” about the feeling of unexpectedly falling in love — something that was almost certainly prompted by Isbell’s relationship with Shires. It proved to be one of the best performances of his set.
 
After the happiest tune of the set, came the most hauntingly beautiful and mournful tune, even more so than “Live Oak” in which the narrator murders his love. “Elephant” is a searing elegy of a man in a relationship with a woman dying of cancer and the ups-and-downs associated with someone dying long before their time. If there was a dry eye in the house during this performance somebody obviously wasn’t paying enough attention — which was extremely unlikely given the unbelievable talent onstage.
 
Isbell finished his opening set up with an incredibly badass cover of the Rolling Stones’ rocker “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” which absolutely brought the house down and he desperately needs to capture (preferably as a live performance) on a record at some point.
 
As a huge Isbell fan I was left, like almost everybody in the joint, feeling that the opening act set was simply too short and could’ve gone on for much longer. The shortness of the performance left me disappointed in that I wasn’t able to hear my absolute favorite Isbell tune “Alabama Pines” or some of his other Drive-By Truckers classics like “Outfit” or “Decoration Day.” There were also plenty of other great tracks from “Southeastern” that I would’ve been thrilled to have heard like “Songs That She Sang in the Shower” or “Relatively Easy.” Like I previously said, hopefully Isbell will return to The Rev Room sometime soon to give fans an entire set.
 
As I said previously, I had little to no knowledge of California roots rock group Dawes coming into the show, but I left feeling that I had been introduced to one of the better rock groups around today. The band is incredibly talented and frontman Taylor Goldsmith has an indelible charm about him and a penchant for writing good lyrics, which I’m thrilled I could make out, thanks to The Rev Room’s system, despite never previously hearing the band. He’s also a seriously good guitarist with a unique and warm voice. Maybe the only small criticism about Dawes’ set is that after a while many of the songs, though good, start to sound the same.
 
Dawes ripped through a strong set that included some new found gems (to me) like “Most People,” their set opener from their most recent album “Stories Don’t End,” “A Little Bit of Everything,” “Something in Common” and “Someone Will.”
 
Their performance of “When My Time Comes,” off of their debut 2009 album “North Hills,” was a truly special moment of the night as the entire crowd felt energized as they danced and sang along in unison. It was a moment that seemed to almost take Goldsmith by surprise and he reiterated multiple times throughout the show how well The Rev Room crowd had treated their music and performance. I only wish that I had known the words to “When My Time Comes” so I could have sung along, but it was a marveling moment to just stand there and watch these people totally immerse themselves in an utterly fantastic live performance.
 
Ultimately that’s what the entire night was “utterly fantastic live music” from an artist that I knew would deliver the goods in Isbell, a truly underrated artist and one who is criminally unknown by too many people, and a fun, mellow rock group in Dawes, which I’m glad to have introduced myself too, as they performed an incredibly effortless and enjoyable headlining set.