The first time I saw Lucius, they were playing a breakfast in the middle of SXSW at the W Hotel. It was like 9 am in the morning and frankly, everyone was there for the free breakfast tacos. Amongst the glory that is eggs, bacon, chorizo and salsa, we saw this band that was all dressed up in uniforms. It was cute, their harmonies sounded good to a hung-over Ricky and I admired their perseverance and dedication to playing a god damn breakast show.
The time since that morning has been great for the band. Not only did they release a fantastic debut album, but lead vocalist Jessica Wolfe and Holly Laessig were also featured on San Fermin’s indie hit track Sonsick. Playing a TURF after party show at the Horseshoe, I was eager to see how the band was in a non breakfast scenario.
Even though it was their second show of the day (they had an early gig at the TURF festival), Lucius’s show was great. Playing material off their debut album, the group’s live set totally blew the recorded material out of the water. Performed live, the harmonies and vocals by Wolfe and Laessig sounded fantastic. The two singers just scream talent and can go from singing country-like songs to r&b style tunes in a matter of minutes. The band loves percussion and at any given point, there were at least one or two members of the group banging on something, whether it be drums, snares or cowbells. Those two elements gave the show a surging pulse and when you blend that with hook filled choruses that is sprinkled throughout their music, the outcome is an outrageously pleasurable experience.
It should be noted that the band tried ambitiously to sing without microphones for the last part of their set. It was a valiant attempt, but the chatty crowd really diminished the experience. (They also tried this at the breakfast). Still it was an ambitious attempt by the group, and given all the different genres of music their record touched, ambition is not something Lucius is unfamiliar with. Let’s hope it stays that way.