Jason Isbell brings his charming sound to Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall
The seasoned pro brought this country style to the North of the UK.
Photo: Christy Bush
Jason Isbell is undoubtedly one of the twenty-first century’s greatest songwriters, but I think it’s time that he is considered one of its finest live performers too.
Describing Isbell’s music as Americana is almost to do it a disservice. Isbell’s songwriting is so vast, moving and powerful that it is almost a genre unto itself. The wide breadth of the material on show invoked every possible emotion within the audience. Isbell opened up the show with the defiant Hope The High Road.
For someone renowned for writing his share of gut-punching melancholic songs, Isbell and his band, The 400 Unit, came absolutely blistering out of the gate with a righteous vengeance as he then flew into It Gets Easier and 24 Frames.
The set was packed full of incredible songs. There wasn’t much stage chatter. Not a single second could afford to be wasted. With a back catalogue like Isbell’s and a band as ferocious as The 400 Unit behind him, who could blame him?
Isbell isn’t afraid to play a wildly varied set that’s full of all sorts of surprising songs from across his back catalogue. You get the impression that part of what makes him and the band so potent is the fact that they are making sure they are enjoying and challenging themselves on stage first and foremost. It’s a feeling that can’t help but bleed into the audience.
In a set that lasted over two hours, not a single person was looking at the clock or wondering when he was going to launch into their favourite song. Everyone was simply on the edge of their seats for the duration. Isbell was in complete command of his songs. He knew exactly when to ease out, ease in, lower the tempo and when to ramp things back up again.
The evening eventually came to a close with a frankly frightening onslaught of some of Isbell’s most revered and timeless material. There have been a lot of words written about the likes of Cover Me Up and If We Were Vampires, and there aren’t many more that I can really add, except to say that hearing them live is another staggering reminder of the magic that a perfect song is capable of conjuring inside us all. Seriously, how is it possible that somebody hadn’t already written both of these songs before?
As if that wasn’t enough, the set finished with a blistering rendition of Isbell’s old band, Drive-By-Truckers, signature anthem Decoration Day. Over twenty songs and more than two hours in, the audience still wanted more. Isbell’s voice sounds better than ever; The 400 Unit are as tight as they can possibly be, and his most recent two records, Weathervanes and Foxes In The Snow, showcase his most powerful and enduring songwriting yet. Jason Isbell is at the absolute peak of his powers. I get the feeling we’re going to be watching shows like this from him for many more decades to come.
