A few years back, I found myself in the woods of the Florida panhandle with my friend Theresa. We detoured down a back road and happened upon a group of good ol' boys sitting on some couches at the edge of what Theresa assured me was a road. They were drinking beer around a fire, laughing and looking at my red VW like I'd come from another country.
In a way, I had — the Florida panhandle isn't Tampa Bay. It's another country.
Monday night at Ruth Eckerd Hall brought me right back there. The Last Waltz 40 tour opened to a full house with "Up On Cripple Creek" and kept climbing after that. See, a good part of the crowd, maybe they were there because they saw the rockumentary, but for me, man, I was there for the southern rock. It would've been totally fine with me had they expanded the set list to include "Sweet Home Alabama." The southern rock songs from the film are on permanent rotation as part of my "Turn It Up" play playlist.
Don't get me wrong; I like Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, too, but their songs alongside "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" in any collection feels peculiar to me. I was most likely in the minority in enjoying the encore, "Don't Do It," more than the final song of the second set, "I Shall Be Released."
Nevertheless, the music was spot-on and by the time they ended the first set with "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" I was wholly and completely entranced with the horn section. In the second set, "Mannish Boy" and "Ophelia" fleshed out the performance — which clocked in, counting intermission, at about three hours. And by the time they played "Don't Do It", I was back in that panhandle forest, smelling pine and watching those boys drink beer and have a good ol' time.
