Toronto – Lucero are one of those bands who’ve been around awhile and have a dedicated following, but who a lot of people just haven’t heard of. The Memphis based band have been around since 1998 and play what could be variously described as country punk, punk country, alt country or just rock n’ roll. Their myspace page describes them as rock/indie/southern rock, so we’ll go with that. They’re touring behind their new album 1372 Overton Park, their first for a major label.
The band started off with Sound Of The City, which features an opening riff slightly reminiscent of Pulp’s Disco 2000, but more … southern maybe. I dunno. The crowd was full of hardcore fans (speaking of hardcore, I spotted no less than 3 dudes in the crowd with full scalp tattoos – now that’s hardcore … but I digress) so even if you only knew them a bit, it was easy to get swept up in the enthusiasm. This enthusiasm continued unabated throughout the night. Well, almost unabated. At one point, the awesomely monikered bassist John C. Stubblefield (who looks like a slightly shaggier Patterson Hood) addressed the crowd to let them know to be careful while “mixin’ it up” up front as a girl almost lost her teeth to a beer bottle. Singer Ben Nichols added, “We’ve got enough toothless girls back home, we don’t need any more.” Funny.
Lucero’s sound has evolved over the years and this was reflected in the band’s lineup this night. There were up to eight players on stage at any given time, including pedal steel, keyboards, and 2 saxophone players. That’s right, 2 saxes! I’m calling it now – the sax is making a comeback. Well … maybe not, but at the very least, Clarence Clemons’ job is safe.
All in all, it was a good show. The band played for over 2 hours and highlights included The War (in my mind, maybe their best song), That Much Further West, Kiss The Bottle, Darken My Door, and the dude who got up on stage near the end to play a tambourine solo. It was pretty good and he looked like he was enjoying himself.
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That was a great show and both openers did a great job also…I’m not sure about the brass section although it worked for the most part…I spent enough time in pits in tiny club shows through the 80’s…that “beer lassoo” thing that the hardcore Lucero kids have got going on, I could sure live without…I feel for Ben and boys having to endure that every show…they sure are good sports about it though…also, it is interesting that Lucero have never “broken through” to that next level, again like a lot of the punk, alternative, hardcore stuff in the old days where you could see great bands in smaller venues numerous times because of the smaller scene before YouTube, etc. Maybe Lucero needs to “luck out” and support a Neil Young or similar for some greater exposure…bottlegreg