The thought of dragging my carcass into Glasgow last night was pretty daunting. I first came into contact with the band Lucero by way of a documentary called "Dreaming In America". Since seeing this, my brother has become a major fan of this archetypal "road band" in the oldest school sense of the word. Drive By Truckers crossed with Uncle Tupelo and a side of Bachman Turner Overdrive or maybe Jason and the Scorchers drizzled in BOC. Anyway, these guys are considerably more able to hold your attention than The (vastly overrated and way over-choreographed for my monet) Hold Steady. Building a following steadily over the years they have a legion of diehards that follow them. Two American couples beside me in the crowd, screamed every word in time and knew every tempo change. It was kind of overwhelming to see something with this much potential to go thermo-nuclear play to maybe 70 people.
It went on a little long for my liking but almost everything does. What can't be said is that Lucero don't give at least 150%. When they really hit their stride, the resultant concussion taking me back to the days in the stalls at the Glasgow Apollo like a battle flashback. Trying to give the bouncers the slip to make it down the front. If you want to rock, then this would be a better place to drop your dough than these upcoming Zeppelin shakedowns.
There is much potential for growth in terms of audience numbers. Next time they'll probably be able to sell out King Tut's or a bigger venue even. Nice'n'Sleazy is a good enough place to play, I just hate the name and the fact that it reminds me of a bunch of punk bandwagoneers that I've actively loathed for more than 3 decades. But anyway, I KNOW some of you would love Lucero. What they deal in is simple, direct, sweaty and straight outta Memphis.
