There's an old saying that wine gets better with age. After Saturday night's concert at Radio City Music Hall with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, there is no doubt that saying also applies to Isbell and his band.
At one of America's cathedrals of music, Isbell and his band put on an incredible performance in front of a nearly sold-out venue that was staring down the barrel of a blizzard in the Big Apple for the first time in nine years.
The evening began with rock and roll legend Alejandro Escovedo as the opening act. Escovedo and his duo backing band played for 45 minutes to get the crowd warmed up for the main act. The 75-year old hasn't lost a beat and was joined by Britt Daniel from the band Spoon for his last two songs of the opening set.
After a brief intermission, Isbell and the 400 Unit went on stage at approximately 9:21 PM and led off the evening with a strong rendition of Crimson and Clay off of the 2025 Grammy nominated solo album Foxes in the Snow. The song as an opener feels like an interesting choice, but also immediately reminded the audience that this was going to be a full band evening on the heels of Isbell's solo performance the night before.
The band followed with Hope the High Road and It Gets Easier from The Nashville Sound and Reunions albums as the early part of the set brought tracks from three of Isbell's four most recent album releases. Isbell flipped gears back to FITS with his bluegrass rendition of Bury Me which has quickly become a crowd favorite. On a personal note, it shows the quality of a musician when they are able to re-work their own music in a way that gives a song a completely different feel.
Isbell turned the heat up with the next three songs as he began a call back to the earlier days of the band and his days with the Drive-By-Truckers. Volunteer rounded out the first five songs, before Isbell introduced a song he wrote for Matthew Conley from Green Hill, Alabama and tore into a stunning rendition of Dress Blues. The song marked the second song in a row that I was able to knock off of my personal setlist after seeing Isbell live on eight different occasions.
Following on the heels of Dress Blues was a blistering version of Decoration Day. On the song, Isbell showed his guitar chops for the first time on the evening with the slide guitar solo that brought down the house while Sadler Vaden got involved with a stellar solo of his own.
Reunions got its second track of the night with the ever-present Dreamsicle. The song's thematic work and nostalgia toward summertime will be welcome to the crowd after a long winter that certainly disrupted travel plans for a number of last night's attendees.
On the heels of Dreamsicle, Something More Than Free picked up its only song of the evening with a very deliberate version of Children of Children. Following the SMTF selection, the night completely changed and lifted the show into rarified air.
The 10th song marked the third song of the evening that was a first time live listen for me as Isbell sang out the line "I can barely make out a little light from the house on the cul-de-sac" and dropped my jaw with an incredible, yet straight-forward playing of Yvette from the Southeastern album.
Alabama Pines followed before Isbell stepped back to Southeastern with a fantastic rendition of Relatively Easy. Gravelweed followed before a fourth, first-time song came out with Outfit from Isbell's Drive-By-Trucker days. The song has been requested numerous times at shows from Syracuse, NY to Charleston, SC but marked a first for me. The solo from Isbell was yet again sensational as the 47 year old continues to show off his impressive guitar chops.
The full band version of True Believer was next and was another reminder of the power of the 400 Unit in taking a solo song and providing an extra oomph in a live setting. When Isbell powers his way into the chorus, it feels significantly more meaningful when he delivers the opening line.
For the fifth time of the night, Isbell checked a song off of the personal set list when he pulled out Different Days. Miles came in next, replete with the Vaden-Isbell guitar duel at the end that marks a highlight of every live set with the full band. Sadler's guitar work on the evening felt extra special, and was noted early in the show by Isbell as being due to a recent birthday for the North Myrtle Beach, S.C. native.
Isbell dropped in two classic love songs and a cover to wrap up the main set. If We Were Vampires, complete with the new full band intro, opened the three-pack and brought the near-capacity crowd to its feet with a standing ovation at the end.
The first cover of the evening came next with a blistering version of Can't Ya Hear Me Knockin' by The Rolling Stones. Admittedly, I was unsure what the song was when I heard it and was casually reminded by a few fellow fans that it was a Richards-Jagger-Jones powerhouse from the 1971 Sticky Fingers album. Isbell and Vaden took the closing solo to the extreme with another sensational guitar duel that was one of the evening's highlights.
The band wrapped up the main set with the always loved Cover Me Up from Southeastern as the band left the stage for a short breather before returning to close out the evening. In an odd turn of events, the house lights came up at the end of the main set and from the Second Mezzanine you could see multiple attendees leaving the venue earlier due to the false alarm.
Isbell returned to the stage with an acoustic and pulled off another cover to open the encore. While technically a cover of Bradley Cooper from A Star Is Born, Maybe It's Time was written by Isbell for the movie. At the end of the song, Isbell reminded the crowd that the song really wasn't a song, but was written for a movie and that "it's really hard to act."
A fun evening ended with Danko/Manuel and King of Oklahoma as the evening wrapped up at 11:30.
For fans that have seen the band previous to the divorce of Isbell and Amanda Shires, the new version of the 400 Unit is the best yet. Shires has effectively been replaced by the versatile Will Johnson, while long-time JI400 bassist Jimbo Hart has been replaced by Anna Butterss. While these Shires and Hart were original members of the band with an extensive history personally with Isbell, the band has not missed a beat in their absence and continues to improve into one of the best rock and roll bands around.
Johnson plays drums, guitar and provides backing vocals and helps fill the band's sound in a way that is similar to Steven Van Zandt with Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band. While Van Zandt is a band leader from the musical standpoint, Johnson adds a new layer to the drumming of Chad Gamble and provides a consistent rhythm guitar to back Isbell and Vaden when they turn the show into a Southern Rock performance.
Derry Deborja is ever present on the keyboards, organ and occasional accordion providing a foundational sound to the band.
The late hour caused some issue for folks looking to leave New York City, including me. As I returned to Penn Station, I found that my train back to New Jersey was cancelled, causing an hour delay in my travel. The folks sitting next to me were working with airlines to re-book flights from LaGuardia that were cancelled due to the pending blizzard. All in, the show lasted over two hours and in my ranking of Isbell shows (solo and full band) would rank at the top of the list as a 4.5 out 5 stars.
Set List:
Crimson and Clay
Hope the High Road
It Gets Easier
Bury Me
Volunteer
Dress Blues
Decoration Day
Dreamsicle
Children of Children
Yvette
Alabama Pines
Relatively Easy
Gravelweed
Outfit
True Believer
Different Days
Miles
Vampires
Can't Ya Hear Me Knockin' (Rolling Stones cover)
Cover Me Up
Maybe It’s Time (A Star Is Born)
Danko/Manuel
King of Oklahoma