After Austin City Limits opened its format to modern-rock acts, Old 97's shared an episode with alt-country sensation Whiskeytown, and though Ryan Adams and company put up a good set, Old 97's was incendiary. Fight Songs aside, Old 97's hasn't made a record that fully captures what the band is all about, but live, the Texas quartet links surging power-pop with muddy-booted roots-rock, expanding Americana to include the British Invasion. During the recording of its hit-and-miss 2004 album Drag It Up, Old 97's filmed a set at The Troubadour in Los Angeles for the DVD Old 97's Live, and though the editing's too busy, the set's still hot, with bandleader Rhett Miller starting sweaty and getting sweatier, peaking with the lovelorn rave-up "Lonely Holiday" and the frenzied "Four Leaf Clover."
The Drive-By Truckers concert DVD Dirty South Tour: Live At The 40 Watt is even twangier and rougher, featuring two and half hours of big-riff, triple-guitar Southern rock. Because the film was shot at an Athens, Georgia "record release party" for last year's The Dirty South, the set list is dominated by songs from an LP that's not the band's best, and because the show took place in a club known for its dim lighting, the action isn't always as clear as it could be. But the Truckers are tight, storming through the old epics "The Southern Thing" and "The Living Bubba" as well as the new classics "Where The Devil Don't Stay" and "Danko/Manuel." The disc is louder than a locomotive, and pleasantly numbing. Somebody should book Drive-By Truckers on Austin City Limits pronto.