Lucero
Lee's Palace
Torononto, Ontario
October 15, 2015
In support of their new album All a Man Should Do, Lucero have been pulling double duty on their latest tour and playing two sets a night. Walking into Thursday’s concert at Lee’s Palace, the first of a two-day stint in celebration of the venue’s 30th anniversary, I had a couple of questions. I was wondering whether or not after seventeen years Lucero had enough fire in their bellies to pull them through two hours of stage time. I was also wondering whether or not as a casual listener I wanted to sit through two hours of Lucero.
The show that night was solid: a well-played and well-rounded mixture of slow jams and up-tempo tacks from through out the band’s extensive catalogue. I enjoyed myself, but not half as much as the rest of the audience. This is because Lucero fans really love Lucero. I don’t mean love in the way that you might love McDonald’s soft-serve or your grandparents. I mean love in that all consuming Annie Wilkes style that makes you afraid someone is going to get stabbed.
The crowd fucking loved the show. A group of about thirty burly dudes in denim pressed themselves against the front of the stage and sang along with every goddamn word to every goddamn song. Behind them a couples danced with a reckless disregard for rhythm, holding each other close during the ballads and shaking ass during the faster tracks. The highlight of the night came when a staggering thirty something, double fisting her rum and Cokes, turned and informed me that Lucero’s singer Ben Nichols is so fucking beautiful that she can’t even fucking date anyone else in real life. She then proceeded to finish both her drinks and sprinted off into the night.
It might sound like I’m making fun of these people, but I’m not. At least not entirely. That environment is kind of amazing. Like any good punk I’ve been known to get drunk and misty to the kiss the bottle cover, but at best I had always been a casual listener of Lucero. But watching the band with those kinds of fans made me feel like I was watching something special. It was like being at a wedding if everyone at the wedding was your drunk uncle and your drunk uncle was fucking stoked on the people getting married.
It’s a cop-out on a review to state that the people who like the band enjoyed watching them play their songs. But what I’m saying is that if you get the chance to see Lucero on this tour you should probably head out and see them. The band sounded great and it’s worth the price of admission for the people watching alone.
