Concert Reviews

Review & Setlist: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit impart southern comforts at sold-out show

Isbell & the 400 Unit swept through Boston's Roadrunner like a mighty gust of wind, capturing each and every concert-goer in a spellbinding, all-consuming state.

By Emma Furrier

July 28, 2023

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Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit at Roadrunner Boston, Thursday, July 27

Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell has spent the better part of 25 years strengthening his craft to land him where he is today.

Born and raised in Greenhill, Alabama, Isbell joined Drive-By Truckers at the ripe age of 22 and spent six years with the southern rock band before leaving to start up a project of his own.

The 400 Unit resulted, and the group put out their eponymous debut album in 2009 to widespread acclaim. About 14 years later, they’ve just put out their ninth studio album, Weathervanes, on Isbell’s own Southeastern Records label. 

Isbell has remained an outspoken genre chameleon, effortlessly weaving through intricate compositions and diverse soundscapes. While the “Americana” label has suited him quite well, so would folk, country, and southern rock. 

In recent months, Isbell’s older work has resonated with the younger generation through social media and streaming upticks. While much of this is partly due to his of-the-moment and brutally unfeigned songwriting, it also reflects the artist’s no-nonsense, humorously bespoke online presence. As his live show attests, what you see is truly what you get with Isbell. 

If his prolific lyricism and deeply personal narratives are any indicator, Isbell remains earnestly open. Frequently peppering his insight and quick wit to his mass of nearly 500,000 Twitter followers, he has become an artist’s advocate and an online presence that provides both catharsis and humor, something that embellishes his own music in a style so particular to Isbell, it is instantly identifiable.

A recent Twitter skirmish with country music singer Jake Owen over Jason Aldean’s new controversial track “Try That in a Small Town” has made recent headlines. Isbell, always quick to air his grievances, challenged Aldean with a Tweet reading, “Dare Aldean to write his next single himself. That’s what we try in my small town.”

Songwriting is a craft that Isbell clearly takes pride in, and rightfully so; pick apart any song of his and it is a quick study of poetry and social rhetoric. 

Now on the road supporting the release of Weathervanes, Isbell & the 400 Unit swept through Boston’s Roadrunner like a mighty gust of wind, capturing each and every concert-goer in a spellbinding, all-consuming state. The force of their impeccable musicianship echoed the gale that blew throughout the city Thursday night, amplifying the cozy atmosphere created by Isbell and crew. 

After the humorous musings of opener S.G. Goodman, the set started with a short greeting from Isbell before the band launched into their perilous hit “Death Wish,” where slide guitar work and a rumbling of instrumentation heightened every eager expectation from the jam-packed audience. Not one, but two drummers attacked their kits in synchronized rapture, providing a palpitating beat.

The stage was adorned with a diamond-shaped canopy covering the band from above, while lighting in tones of orange and red complemented the campfire-like atmosphere. The Weathervanes logo was projected onto the tapestry along with other graphics throughout the show, stylizing each song with just the right touch of production to naturally enhance the organic performance. Aided by spectacular lighting and production, the show proves a spectacle in roots rock allure. 

Tracks “Save the World” and “King of Oklahoma” instilled the Unit’s southern rock flair, progressing from country-laden harmonies into intensifying hues of grandeur. There are moments that glimmers of The E Street Band shine through, though Isbell’s vocals pull the reins entirely in his own direction. With a narrative that feels warmly inviting, a musical dichotomy built into a climaxing crescendo of sound with dueling guitar solos and an insatiable driving beat. 

In a moment of repose, “Strawberry Woman” served as a mellow reminder of Isbell’s pristine songwriting, tapping into traditional country storytelling that, at its essence, is familiar and keenly emotive. Paired with an atmospheric accordion solo, the subtleties of the 400 Unit’s sound are illuminated and reflected through the crowd’s echos of the enchanting, “Traveling Alone.” 

Emphasizing performance equally as much as his songwriting itself, the band’s performance ventured into jam rock territory on songs like “When We Were Close” and “Super 8.” Band members Sadler Vaden, Derry DeBorja, Chad Gamble, and Will Johnson held down a tight sound, joined by fill-in bassist Dominic Davis (just off the road with Jack White). 

“White Beretta” contemplates religion amidst an inferred abortion in Isbell’s youth. Pulling from the depths of his soul, Isbell’s voice has never sounded so purely unrefined, straining against the confines of emotional burden and beautifully riding the wave of texture and sincerity. This sentiment continued on “Middle of the Morning,” an anthemic blues-infused, soulful folk rocker that melodically hints at notes of the Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider” and sees Isbell soaring at a heightened range. Bellowing with little restraint, his inspired performance enraptured every soul in attendance and cemented his prowess as a performer. 

Celebrating a decade of Isbell’s 2013 solo record Southeastern, he pulled five songs from it to play, slightly tweaking the setlist from preceding shows thus far in the tour.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re doing a lot of songs off that new record and we’re doing a lot songs off an album called Southeastern that came out 10 years ago this summer,” he told the crowd to deafening cheers. “I don’t feel like it’s been that long, but it sure has. We’re gonna do some things later on in the year to celebrate that, but in the meantime we’re putting a lot of the Southeastern songs back in the set.”

Jumping into “Elephant,” “Stockholm,” and “Flying Over Water” off that record, their Americana flourishes feel timeless and classic in Isbell’s wide-ranging discography.

Shrouded in a beam of blinding white light while he expertly wailed on his guitar, an emotional moment of musical reverie encompassed the stage and heightened the fact that while decades have passed like a gust in the wind, Isbell still holds close the spark of wide-eyed exhilaration that ignites his music. 

On Weathervanes single “Cast Iron Skillet,” a track that gained momentum with its choice lyrics, Isbell explores his relationship with the life lessons he learned growing up in the South, in a range of mundane to darkly complex set of instructions.

Exemplifying his unique storytelling capabilities that hold just the right amount of self-confessional truths, Isbell turned into our zealous narrator and held the crowd captive, as he so easily does.

“Don’t wash the cast iron skillet,” he sang with poise, before jabbing back with a line that the crowd shouts with an eerie amount of triumph, “That dog bites my kid, I’ll kill it.” 

Emerging from the dark into the light, the mood picked back up with rock and roll revelry. Guitarist Sadler Vaden took to vocals as the band covered “Honeysuckle Blue,” a song from his previous band, Drivin’N Cryin’.

Following in the same saturated rollicking, songs “Miles” and “Cover Me Up” satisfied with their slow-burning fervor. On the closing track, a personal snapshot reveals the stark vulnerability and romance as Isbell unfolds his and his wife, Amanda Shires’, love story.

Battling alcohol addiction, Isbell has been sober since 2012, a fact that peppers the narrative of many tracks. Singing, “But I sobered up and I swore off that stuff / Forever this time” to hollers from the crowd, it’s these moments of ardor that instill the spirit of Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. 

Encore tracks “24 Frames,” “If We Were Vampires,” and “This Ain’t It” closed out the show with a level of unrelenting satisfaction. A recent cover of “Vampires” by rising folk star Noah Kahan and The Lumineer’s Wesley Shultz has given new life to the seminal song — a testament to Isbell’s songwriting, as it lives on in the narratives of others.

In conjunction with the recent release of the HBO/Max documentary “Running With Our Eyes Closed,” chronicling the making of 2020’s Reunions, Isbell’s legacy seems to be strengthening by the hour. 

After 14 years together, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit have proved they still have new peaks to climb. Ever-evolving, their timely and poignant lyricism paints a painfully visceral portrait of American life, punctuated by Isbell’s intrinsic yearnings and masterful musicianship.

Leaving Roadrunner reeling with emotion, the Unit are off to conquer Newport Folk Festival this weekend. Sailing full speed ahead, they’re sure to weather any storm. 

Setlist for Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit at Roadrunner Boston, July 27, 2023:

• Death Wish
• Save the World
• King of Oklahoma
• Strawberry Woman
• Traveling Alone (Jason Isbell song)
• When We Were Close
• White Beretta
• Super 8 (Jason Isbell song)
• Middle of the Morning
• Overseas
• Elephant (Jason Isbell song)
• Stockholm (Jason Isbell song)
• Flying Over Water (Jason Isbell song)
• Cast Iron Skillet
• Honeysuckle Blue (Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ cover)
• Miles
• Cover Me Up (Jason Isbell song) 
• Encore: 24 Frames (Jason Isbell song)
• If We Were Vampires
• This Ain’t It