Live Review: Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Deer Tick

It's more an issue of working out what Jason Isbell isn't, rather than trainspotting all the musical flavours that are present as he and this increasingly superlative band spool it out. Sure, there's some modern country in there, but certainly no pick-up trucks or big hats. Americana folk? Well, yeah, but not when he and Sadler Vaden cranked the electric guitars up to 11 through something like Drive-By Truckers' southern rock anthem, Never Gonna Change. Throw in some soul swing, a bluesy rumble and even some pop. The guy with his name on the marquee asked them if they liked the job of "being in a rock'n'roll band" at one point, so let's just go with that.

Deer Tick are maybe a little more on the straight alt-country line, but their Rhode Island home and influences aren't exactly old Nashville either. Don't Hurt and Spend The Night are well-built tunes, one moment big and rich before John McCauley laughed nervously to let us see the cracks in them and him. Dennis Ryan's drums rolled in big, as extra textures like tin whistle and, "This weird eight-string thing I'll try and play," had them sometimes coming across as Band Of Horses' polite northern cousins. They also like a good obscure cover, and Ben Vaughn's wry Too Sensitive For This World fitted that bill nicely.

With each visit, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit seem to get that bit tighter and looser. They even seem to be spreading out on stage more. But they never really 'run around' in the void they've given themselves, more often it's the band leader just taking a stroll and stepping up on Derry DeBorja's keyboard stand for a peek over his shoulder, or a wander over to share an in-joke with diminutive bassist Jimbo Hart or drummer Chad Gamble. Or maybe it's just the space that Isbell's soulmate, muse, partner and saviour Amanda Shires would fill if she wasn't off touring with John Prine: "If your wife's gonna run off with the mailman, it might as well be that one," Isbell dryly explained.

But opening with the bright one-two punch of 24 Frames and Hope The High Road's optimism that things can hopefully just get better got a well-prepared-to-be-entertained crowd well onside from the off. White Man's World took things a bit darker before Isbell proved the truth of one of his older lyrics that "a Southern man tells better jokes" as a tale of turbulence on the Melbourne-to-Sydney flight turned worrisome when they discovered Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst was also aboard, meaning our boys would end up getting left with Big Bopper status if the plane went down. That would be an injustice.

The band then delved back into the days before the singer's sobering-up and career resurrection, the Truckers' Decoration Day dovetailing into Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit's Alabama Pines, offering nostalgia for a place most of this audience had never been. DeBorja got another chance to shine through Elephant's oddly satisfying black humour and into an accordion-driven swing for Codeine.

Isbell punctuated the music with old-school, well-mannered intros, "This is one from a record we made a couple of years back," and compliments for the support band, "Can I just thank Deer Tick for being here with us. I love their songs, love them as people." 

And on to the still-glorious Cover Me Up. If your partner can write you a love song this good, hug them hard. The aforementioned Never Gonna Change was a loud end to the set proper, but the obligatory encore started off with the reinstated-for-a-local-audience, clarity-finding New South Wales and the now award-winning If We Were Vampires.

And there it ended. We witnessed absolute craftsmen at work.