Booker T., friends rock Red Butte

BOOKER T., DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, CRACKER, Red Butte Garden Amphitheater, Sept. 3

The blues met alternative rock Thursday night for the final Red Butte Gardens concert of the 2009 summer season.

The legendary Booker T took the stage with the Drive-By Truckers, playing songs from their album, "Potato Hole," a collection of instrumentals, much in the style of Booker T's other legendary group, the MG's.

Booker T and the DBT's opened with "Pound It Out" followed by "She Breaks."

Under a full moon with a steady canyon breeze off the mountains all night, the 64-year-old Booker T played organ the majority of the evening, combining R&B, soul and even funk with the triple-guitar assault of the DBT's on songs like "Warped Sister," the title track, and even an instrumental cover of Outkast's "Hey Ya."

Booker T often talked to the crowd between songs, recalling memories from his more than four decades in the music business. He talked about how he was 17 and a high school senior in Memphis before launching into his most well known song, "Green Onions."

For Drive-By Trucker fans, the show may have been a little more reserved than they were used to. But Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley added a few DBT's songs into the set list such as "Let There Be Rock," "Lookout Mountain" and "Angels and Fuselage."

Booker T and DBT's ended their main set with Booker T's "Time is Tight" from 1968. But the highlight of the evening was the first song of the encore when Booker T played guitar and took over lead vocals for Otis Redding's "Dock of the Bay," a song on which Booker originally played piano.

Those who fought through University of Utah football traffic and showed up early saw the godfathers of alternative rock, Cracker, open the show with an outstanding set. David Lowery's vocals were in top form and Johnny Hickman's guitar playing flawless, as the veteran band showed why they should be brought back to Red Butte soon to headline.

The group combined classics such as "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)," "Euro-Trash Girl" and "Low" with a heavy selection of songs off their latest release, "Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey," one of the best albums of 2009. Cracker was tight all night on new songs like "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me," "I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right," "Show Me How This Thing Works" and the title track.

Hood joined Lowery for a duet on "Friends," another song off the Milk and Honey album that originally appeared on Hickman's solo record, 2005's "Palmhenge."

"It was written with Patterson and Cooley in mind," Hickman told the crowd.

e-mail: preavy@desnews.com