A ride in my beau's pick-up and a bucket of southern fried chicken would have been more authentic preparation for a Drive-by Truckers show than a trip on the Tube and a bento box. Once described as "the thinking redneck's country-rockers", the Truckers count their home towns as Athens, Georgia and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where frontman Patterson Hood's father was a session player.

The six-piece has a decade-long back catalogue, including the two-act A Southern Rock Opera , loosely inspired by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Live, their sensibilities are skewed guitarwards, with a line-up of three guitars (or two and John Neff's shimmering pedal steel) and a bass barely kept in check by keyboards and drums. Their songs, blue-collar narratives, inspired Craig Finn to start The Hold Steady, but that band has overtaken them as a party prospect. The Truckers, while impressive, could have done with their turbo-charged energy here.