thefed
11-08-2007, 04:30 PM
I freaking love Lucero. This concert review from CMJ (http://www.cmj.com/relay/?p=3289) sums up why:
Lucero | Music Hall Of Williamsburg | November 3, 2007
Posted by Matt Kiser Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
When we think back to those few moments during a live show where the band and the audience cease to exist as separate units, but merge into a singular beating rhythm, and for those fleeting seconds where the crowd is singing every word and the band has IT and the collective sweat begins to pool on the walls, you take out your earplugs and you join the transcendental moment and in that break from reality every problem disappears instantly. This! This is what you came for and this is a glimpse at the possibilities of a life we’re all hoping to achieve.
As the crowd dripped out of the Music Hall Of Williamsburg on Saturday and into the breezy late-Fall night, there was a certain whisk of this revolutionary spirit still lingering in the air. Lucero had just foot-stomped through a dizzying hootenanny and roustabout. If you weren’t whiskey drunk and sweaty with a horse throat, you weren’t paying attention to what had just happened.
The Tennessee alt-country-cowpunk band tends to accumulate an interesting audience, from keg killing fraternity boys to punk girls with mohawks, Saturday was no different. As singer Ben Nichols - who is often compared to a Memphis version of Bruce Springsteen for both his gruff voice and his storytelling lyrics or even a headier Ryan Adams - set up his amp and tried to tune his guitar, eager fans at the front of the stage showered him with handshakes and high-fives. It wasn’t fandom, but a genuine appreciation for the music that Lucero makes.
The band ran through songs from just about every album and even took requests from the crowd, to which Nichol’s kept a running set list of requests in his head. There was a perpetual slow haze setting on the band as both the crowd and band - especially Nichols - seemed to reach their threshold of intoxication, but nobody noticed - hell, it was better! - when the band missed a few notes or the occasional block of lyrics.
But, the beauty of it was that while those fraternity boys and those punks with mohawks would never interact, let alone agree on something, it is a testament to Lucero’s cross-genre and cross-scene appeal.
It’s hard to argue with a band that can mean so much to so many and be universally agreed upon that they deserve more than they’re getting. Raise a drink and take a swill, ’cause this band’s on the verge.
Lucero | Music Hall Of Williamsburg | November 3, 2007
Posted by Matt Kiser Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
When we think back to those few moments during a live show where the band and the audience cease to exist as separate units, but merge into a singular beating rhythm, and for those fleeting seconds where the crowd is singing every word and the band has IT and the collective sweat begins to pool on the walls, you take out your earplugs and you join the transcendental moment and in that break from reality every problem disappears instantly. This! This is what you came for and this is a glimpse at the possibilities of a life we’re all hoping to achieve.
As the crowd dripped out of the Music Hall Of Williamsburg on Saturday and into the breezy late-Fall night, there was a certain whisk of this revolutionary spirit still lingering in the air. Lucero had just foot-stomped through a dizzying hootenanny and roustabout. If you weren’t whiskey drunk and sweaty with a horse throat, you weren’t paying attention to what had just happened.
The Tennessee alt-country-cowpunk band tends to accumulate an interesting audience, from keg killing fraternity boys to punk girls with mohawks, Saturday was no different. As singer Ben Nichols - who is often compared to a Memphis version of Bruce Springsteen for both his gruff voice and his storytelling lyrics or even a headier Ryan Adams - set up his amp and tried to tune his guitar, eager fans at the front of the stage showered him with handshakes and high-fives. It wasn’t fandom, but a genuine appreciation for the music that Lucero makes.
The band ran through songs from just about every album and even took requests from the crowd, to which Nichol’s kept a running set list of requests in his head. There was a perpetual slow haze setting on the band as both the crowd and band - especially Nichols - seemed to reach their threshold of intoxication, but nobody noticed - hell, it was better! - when the band missed a few notes or the occasional block of lyrics.
But, the beauty of it was that while those fraternity boys and those punks with mohawks would never interact, let alone agree on something, it is a testament to Lucero’s cross-genre and cross-scene appeal.
It’s hard to argue with a band that can mean so much to so many and be universally agreed upon that they deserve more than they’re getting. Raise a drink and take a swill, ’cause this band’s on the verge.