Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit Celebrate 'Weathervanes' at Eastside Bowl

Seeing an artist play in a venue they could sell out many times over is nearly always a recipe for a great show. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s surprise album release party at Eastside Bowl Friday night was certainly no exception. The room’s capacity tops out at 750, a fraction of the audience Isbell & Co. usually play to — for comparison’s sake, they perform for a sold-out crowd of 2,362 on each night of their annual Ryman residency, which ran for eight nights each in 2021 and 2022. But the buzzing excitement in the jam-packed room Friday would’ve convinced you the audience was a whole lot bigger.

After half an hour, Isbell and his band hit the stage running with “Save the World,” kicking off the celebration of their new LP Weathervanes with an early contender for fan favorite. The 400 Unit looks a little different than it did during October’s Ryman run. Many longtime members were there, including guitarist Sadler Vaden, keyboardist Derry DeBorja and drummer Chad Gamble. Bassist Anna Butterss (who you’ve heard on boygenius’ the record) sat in for Jimbo Hart, while Will Johnson (who the heads will know from the late, great Centro-Matic) made his debut as a touring multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, a second drum kit and a gong. Stellar songsmith Amanda Shires, Isbell’s wife and frequent collaborator, isn’t part of the official lineup at present, but she did play with the group Friday. Her fiddling sang above the band, with white-hot spirals of melody enrapturing every careful listener.

Isbell’s previous record Reunions was released as COVID-19 lockdown got in full swing, leading to a record cycle that played out much differently than normal. Isbell clearly relished being able to celebrate Weathervanes in person, as he told the crowd with a dose of his signature humor, “I don’t think a record’s really out until you go to Grimey’s and sign a bunch of records, and then you play a show at the bowling alley.” 

Friday’s show appeared to run without a locked-in set list, with the group shuffling through Weathervanes in seemingly random order. The magic of playing such an intimate show for a small group of dedicated fans is that you can do almost anything and the crowd will eat it up. Sometimes that means a drawn-out jam on “King of Oklahoma.” Other times, it means playing the guitar solo in “If You Insist” three times till you finally get it just right. 

Many artists write their songs long before an album sees the light of day, so by the time they expose what hurts to the world, the wounds are closer to scars. Not so with Weathervanes: The stories in all the songs are timeless, but some seemed to hit especially close to home, like “When We Were Close.” The lyrics brim with grief and guilt; references within them suggest that the inspiration for the song is Justin Townes Earle, who was only 38 when he died in 2020. Isbell sang “I am the last of the two of us” in a way that made it clear that the loss still sears nearly three years later. Afterward, Isbell reflected on the tune and his craft in general: “I say that song was about an old friend as if they all aren’t.” 

Relationships lost to time are woven throughout the album, and played a key role in the show as well. Isbell followed “When We Were Close” with “White Beretta,” in which he looks back on times when he didn’t show up for people the way he’d like to, centered on the story of a teenager driving his girlfriend to get an abortion. Later, he brought up more memories in “Cast Iron Skillet,” in which a childhood friend dies while serving a life sentence for murder and a neighbor gets disowned for dating outside her race. 

Weathervanes and its predecessors share a lot of thematic ground, built around stories from Isbell’s life and from the lives of others who haven’t had the same good fortune. Sonically, the new record represents Isbell and the 400 Unit at their most transparent and most rocking. The live debut of the songs matched it, with rollicking riffs, anthemic choruses and guitar solos at every turn. If you’ve longed for a studio record that captures The 400 Unit’s live sound, Weathervanes is most certainly it.

As for the inaugural live performance, the updated lineup worked seamlessly. In the audience, toddlers watched from their parents’ shoulders, grown men giddily followed the contours of the set, and grandmothers shakily filmed their favorite songs. It was a gathering of old friends from many generations, united by a common admiration. Isbell closed out the show with two classics, “24 Frames” and “Cover Me Up,” and the crowd hung onto and sang along with every word. 

With one last ring of the gong, Isbell beamed like a little kid, waving to the audience like they were long-lost friends. As he and Shires walked off the stage arm in arm, Weathervanes became the world’s story to share.

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