Cerebral storytellers, Drive-By Truckers, swung through Columbus, Ohio on Saturday night to deliver a much needed helping of rock and roll and poignant messaging to a welcoming Newport Music Hall crowd.

Touted as the “longest continually running rock club,” there may be no better place than the Newport for a Trucker’s show. Gritty and tight can be used to describe band and venue, with nostalgia and history coursing through both. There’s a sense of intimacy between band and fans in the space, lending well to the in-your-face communique’ that songwriters and band leaders Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley strive to share.

The set list for this string of shows is a continuation of 2024’s deliverance of the Trucker’s 2001 masterpiece, Southern Rock Opera. The album, the band’s third from the studio, is a sprawling range of subject matter covering race, politics, and the state of rock and roll of the south in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It seems only fitting that the band share the songs from this record on the same stage that many of the musical heroes of the album’s protagonist graced in that decade.

Like many of Hood and Cooley’s songs, messages from the time they were written are just as important and fitting in the moment. Hood shared a few observations with the crowd throughout the 2-plus hour set reflecting on the current divide in our country and the amount of disinformation often guiding our decisions. With those words, however, came the admonition that “It pays to dream, so dream big!” A passionate reminder that drew cheers from an attentive and appreciative assembly.

Interspersed among the tracks from the Southern Rock Opera opus were a smattering of equally important Cooley-penned songs from the Trucker’s catalog including, “Ramon Casiano,” and “Surrender Under Protest,” from 2016’s American Band, and “Primer Coat,” and “Made Up English Oceans” from 2014’s English Oceans.

Among the expected die-hard DBT fans braving the chill on a Saturday night were a collection of new-comers to the band’s music. I spoke with a couple who had won their pair of tickets on a local radio station. Another had stumbled across the music on a Spotify mix and left his wife at home to enjoy a night of new music declaring to me his new-found fandom. The majority of the crowd, however, were chalking up another in a long history of evenings with the band.

Joining Hood and Cooley on stage were long-time drummer, Brad Morgan, bassist Matt Patton, and Keyboardist/Guitarist Jay Gonzalez, adept at driving the rhythm and filling out the complex sound signature in DBT’s music.

Look as well for Hood’s first solo release in over a decade as Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams will hit record store shelves on February 21st. The first two tracks, “A Werewolf and a Girl,” and “The Pool House” can be streamed on your favorite platform.

The current tour, sweeps through a few Midwest towns before sneaking up the East coast and then dropping south to finish strong with five nights at the famed 40-Watt in Athens for the annual DBT “HeAthens Homecoming.” A few of these shows are already sold out, so grab your tickets now and LET THERE BE ROCK!!