The War on Drugs [2022]

<p>For nearly two decades and across five albums,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/the-war-on-drugs-driving-music-for-the-american-dreamscape" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The War on Drugs</a>’ founder and frontman Adam Granduciel has narrated our complex modern lives while his band has scored our dreams.</p><p>The captivating moods of their music, much like us, morph from dense melancholy to saturated, swirling madness and everywhere in between. Granduciel often layers his Springsteen-meets-Young proletariat prose atop a post-rock soundscape, but the heartbeat of their impressive, expansive live shows is their gear and how it is implemented.</p><p>“I could play the whole tour with two or maybe three guitars—a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.premierguitar.com/gear/1958-gretsch-6136-white-falcon" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">White Falcon</a>, Strat, and maybe a Jazzmaster—but I bring all these out just for fun,” he says with a laugh as he considers his trove of axes.</p><p>So, let’s have some fun already! Before a full evening of The War on Drugs’ jams in support of 2021’s&nbsp;<em>I Don’t Live Here Anymore</em>,&nbsp;<em>PG</em>&nbsp;was invited to Nashville’s historic&nbsp;<a href="http://ryman.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ryman Auditorium</a>. We covered Granduciel’s growing guitar collection, got the skinny on how Jerry Garcia’s monstrous setup played into the bandleader’s theatre rig, and we took in a cockpit view of his stompbox squadron full of tone ticklers, sizzlers, and wigglers. In addition, bassist David Hartley showed off a trio of Ps, an armada of Ampegs, and demo’d a fuzz that has ended his quest for razing tones.</p><p><em>Brought to you by&nbsp;</em><a href="https://ddar.io/xpnd.rr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>D’Addario XPND Pedalboard</em></a>.</p>