Review By Harry Kaplan

All Cooley, all the time. I am not sure if non Drive By Trucker fans would enjoy this that much. But for Trucker fans like me and the other 300 people or so in attendance, this was pure Cooley bliss. Cooley played all of his hits that it would take 2 or 3 nights of Trucker shows to hear. He belted out Gravity’s Gone, Self Destructive Zones, Carl Perkin’s Cadillac, When the Pin Hits The Shell, and Uncle Frank, just to name a few. It was an intimate evening with Cooley on acoustic guitar.  

If I have to make one small complaint, it was that U Street Music Hall is not the ideal place to see an acoustic performance. The stage is quite low and the venue is very long and narrow. If someone was not in the first couple of rows in the front, it was difficult, if not impossible to see. The acoustics were good throughout, but if you like to see as well as hear, not the best venue for that. That was the only small complaint I had.

For me and the rest of the Trucker fans in attendance, you could not ask for a better night. Mike was very comfortable in front of the enthusiastic crowd, spoke freely in between songs, and exchanged some banter with the audience. Instead of a concert, it felt more like seeing a performer in someone’s family room and inviting 300 of your closest friends. It did not have the electricity of a full Drive By Truckers rock show, but it was a great evening nonetheless.