Prior to last weekend, it felt like it had been a while since Lucero – my personal favorite band of the last couple of decades – had played in my neck of the woods (let’s call it southeastern New England). In reality, it had been quite literally just a hair shy of one calendar year, but when you’re talking about a band of veritable road warriors like the Memphis-based quintet, one calendar year seems like an eternity. Such is life when still firmly entrenched in a music industry in its third year of pandemic-inspired “new normal” or whatever.
So it was that I found myself in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on Saturday night as the Lucero / L.A. Edwards tour that’s currently crisscrossing the eastern half of the country finally made its way to the northeast corner for the first time. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Pawtucket? Really? They don’t even have a baseball team anymore, but they have a cool place to see good shows?” Yes, in fact, they do! It’s called the Met and it’s presently in its third location (the first two were in neighboring Providence. As an aside, shoutout to the old Met Cafe. Well, not the OLD old Met Cafe, but the second one; the one that was next to the old Lupos. Well, not the OLD old Lupos, but the second Lupos, before it moved to where the Strand is now. Yes that’s as confusing as it sounds but if you are from the area, you get it) and it’s a pretty great room, even accounting for the fact that it has a giant support pole right in the middle of stage right (see the picture above).
ANYWAY, this Lucero run finds the band in between album cycles. Touring for their last studio album, When You Found Me, has wrapped, and over the course of the last year, the crew wrote and recorded another new record. Due out in February, the new record is slated to be called Should’ve Learned By Now, it’ll be their second studio album since the start of the pandemic and their twelfth overall (thirteenth if you count The Attic Tapes). If you’ve caught any of the shows on this run, you’re no doubt familiar with probably four or five of the tracks from the new album, as they’ve already woven their way into setlists. That was certainly true on this particular evening, as we were treated to “Buy A Little Time,” “Drunken Moon” with a vocal harmony assist from all three Edwards brothers, “Nothing’s Alright,” and of course lead single and newfound crowd favorite “One Last Fuck You.”
The remainder of the set did a pretty good job of encompassing most stages of the band’s career, which is just about to hit the 25-year mark. The band’s second album, Tennessee, and second-newest album, Among The Ghosts, were equally well represented. “Watch It Burn” from 2005’s Nobody’s Darlings was a welcome surprise, as was “Smoke,” the first track on 2009’s 1372 Overton Park, my own personal favorite Lucero record. The band sounded great; tight to a point, but then again, it’s a Lucero show, so with its requisite amount of chaos embedded in the mix. As Lucero shows go, it was just about as solid as you can get!
As mentioned above, L.A. Edwards are serving as support for the duration of this run. For the uninitiated, LA Edwards is four-piece outfit that finds its frontman and namesake Luke backed on both rhythm section and vocal harmonies by his brothers Jerry and Jay and, on this run, by Landon Pigg on guitar. There’s a real heavy Tom Petty/Jackson Browne/Laurel Canyon vibe to the band’s sound, which probably makes sense given that they have roots that spread from Nashville, Tennessee, to southern California. The newly-released single “The Crow” was a personal favorite – you can check out the lyric video here.
Check out a bunch more pictures of both L.A. Edwards and Lucero below. Tour runs through the end of the month when it wraps up in Bloomington, Illinois. Catch the full rundown here, and if you’re out and about at the rescheduled Boston show this weekend, come say hi!
L.A. Edwards Slideshow
Lucero Slideshow
