Turnpike Troubadours and friends turned Azura into a honky-tonk Saturday night

Turnpike Troubadours. // photo by Nick Spacek

Turnpike Troubadours
with The Avett Brothers, Old 97’s, and Kaitlin Butts
Azura Amphitheater
Saturday, August 26

What with the lovely weather Saturday night, it’s tempting to make some comment like, “The air may have been cool, but it was hot onstage at Azura,” but no. It’d be a disservice to just how amazing it is to see how far Turnpike Troubadours have come, to say nothing of tourmates the Avett Brothers.

Just five years ago, Turnpike played second on a three-band bill with headliners Jason Isbell & 400 Unit and openers Old 97’s at Azura, and that show didn’t touch the lawn. Saturday night, the venue was packed from front of house all the way back to the top of the lawn. Turnpike Troubadours are a band who, thanks to a lengthy hiatus which began in 2019 and the rampant sharing of musical fandoms during the Covid lockdown, came back in 2021 to a bigger fanbase than when they left.

Coming out and kicking off with a zydeco-tinged take on “Shreveport” was as experimental as Turnpike Troubadours would get all night. For the most part, they stuck to the songs, but played them as hard as they possibly could. Just a roadhouse band on a big-ass stage, playing their hearts out for thousands.

Maybe the big shed shows are less rowdy than when they used to play the Granada, but the sheer roar of thousands singing along to “7 & 7” or their cover of John Hartford’s “Long Hot Summer Day” is just a transference of energy, I think. Watching the band rip through “Before the Devil Knows We’re Dead” is to see a powerhouse of energy, and contrasted with a quiet duo take on “Diamonds & Gasoline” immediately thereafter is to experience pure talent. Not for nothing did three new songs from their just released the day before A Cat in the Rain result in zero rushes to the bathroom—an impressive achievement for any band.

The Avett Brothers. // photo by Nick Spacek

The Avett Brothers’ I and Love and You might stand as that band’s highlight, much as Turnpike’s Diamonds & Gasoline does for them. These are songs that will make up a major portion of any setlist either act plays for the rest of their career, chockablock as they are with hit after hit. Thus, it was unsurprising to cuts like “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise” or “I and Love and You,” and especially wonderful to hear the former’s familiar piano chords ring out to open the Avett’s set.

Worth noting, though: while the first half of the set seemed to be a perfect ebb and flow, and the energy level was absolutely off the charts, the band didn’t quite stick the landing. The band tacked a bunch of frills onto songs which didn’t need them, and the one-two of a solo Scott Avett doing “Murder in the City,” followed by a full band sad singalong of “I and Love and You” was followed by the inexplicably popular funk-light of “Ain’t No Man,” a mood shift which just felt awkward. Closing with “No Hard Feelings” makes sense, but it’s an overlong closer.

Old 97’s. // photo by Nick Spacek

Old 97’s are celebrating 30 years as a band this year, and three decades on, they’re still the same guys. Their set seems like it’s effortless for the quartet to get up on stage and run through classics like “Four Leaf Clover,” “Question,” and “Timebomb.” From moment they walked onstage to Devo’s “Gut Feeling,” their ever-so-slightly goofy dad energy saw its way into every aspect of their set, be it bassist Murray Hammond’s greeting to the audience, all the way through frontman Rhett Miller’s windmill guitar playing. A barnburning performance of “Doreen,” from their first album Hitchhike to Rhome, was a particular highlight.

Kaitlin Butts. // photo by Nick Spacek

Three songs into her set, opener Kaitlin Butts told the audience, “I hope you’re ready for some sad yeehaw, ’cause that’s all we’ve got,” then launched into a rollicking honky-tonk song called “it won’t always be this way,” whose chorus prominently features the lyrics, “We’re all gonna die someday,” and followed it up with a song about UFOs called “Marfa Lights.” She closed with a rumbling, Gothic country version of Leadbelly’s “In the Pines” at odds with the still-setting sun.

All photos by Nick Spacek

Turnpike Troubadours

Turnpike Troubadours setlist
Shreveport
Good Lord Lorrie
Every Girl
7 & 7
The Mercury
Unrung
The Bird Hunters
Wrecked
A Tornado Warning
Chipping Mill
Mean Old Sun
Brought Me
Whole Damn Town
Kansas City Southern
Before the Devil Knows We’re Dead
Diamonds & Gasoline
For the Sake (When It Comes to Loving You)
Long Hot Summer Day
The Housefire
Something to Hold On To
—
Gin, Smoke, Lies
Long Drive Home

The Avett Brothers

The Avett Brothers setlist
Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise
Live and Die
Morning Song
Vanity
Kick Drum Heart
Groundhog (The Doc Watson Family cover)
I Wish I Was
High Steppin’
Satan Pulls the Strings
Talk on Indolence
Murder in the City
I and Love and You
Ain’t No Man
No Hard Feelings

Old 97’s

Kaitlin Butts