Jason Isbell fills D.C.'s Warner Theater with good vibes while sadness fills the streets all around it

As we entered the beautiful Warner Theater in Washington D.C. last night, we were informed to not use our cell phones while Jason Isbell was on stage, as the night before he had paused the show because of the disruptions they can cause.

I believe that happened too, because the man knows how to control a large audience. He played 90 minutes all by himself and had the crowd—the second of three sold-out Warner performances—lapping out of his hands.

It was a beautiful show and often had me feeling I was at a long-ago Uncle Tupelo acoustic show, except instead of the sounds of two legends, Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy, there was just one: Isbell. The man sure can write a song that can take lots of directions but never forgets to include a catchy hook in each part.

It was also a much needed escape from the endless bad news coming out of the White House from right down the street—news so relentlessly awful for weeks now that it would seem like jokes piled on top of jokes if the optics weren’t so embarrassing and the repercussions weren’t growing more harmful by the day.

I fully expected Isbell—an outspoken, and unusual for a country artist, critic of bad and evil politicians—to spend much of the night talking about what’s going on in the world, but he stayed away, instead letting many of his lyrics do the talking and perhaps shielding a hurt and vulnerable D.C. audience from the current events if for only a night.

The highlight of the 18-song setlist was a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty,” which felt fitting as the crook-in-chief is waging a racist war on people along our southern border and indiscriminately sending innocent humans into holding pens because they aren’t white.

“Alabama Pines” from Isbell’s sometimes-band the 400 Unit’s 2011 Here We Rest was the second best moment of the night. Also, “Tour of Duty” from that album was an upbeat, semi-bluegrass ditty of finishing a military gig, suffering the wounds, trying to recover, and vowing to be done with that life.

“Elephant” and “Traveling Alone” were some of my next favorites, both from 2013’s classic Southeastern. All of the above songs gave me tears in my eyes. “Overseas,” which kicked off the show, from 2020’s Reunions, did the same. “If We Were Vampires” and “Last of My Kind” from 2017’s The Nashville Sound from the 400 Unit were part of the “not a stinker in the batch” collection.

I don’t think I could wish for more from a solo acoustic performance, but if I could, I would suggest that Isbell really should have played at least one song off my favorite Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit album, 2023’s Weathervanes. It’s still practically brand new … and nothing? Also, there’s no way a solo show like this could ever be in the running as a best-show-ever classic. Very minor beefs.

4.5 out of 5 stars