Images: Lucero, Brock and Sal of TheCore. August 23, 2013 at the Fremont Country Club

Just a little over a year since their last Vegas show, Lucero returned to downtown on Aug. 23, once again joined by locals Brock Frabbiele and Sal Giordano of TheCore. The show was moved last minute from Backstage Bar & Billiards to the neighboring Fremont Country Club, and unbeknownst to me (and the many others already in line when I got there) doors got pushed back, so I did a lot of downtown people watching during my hour-long wait to get in. This included the usual Tony Hsieh sighting, and also listening to the gentleman behind me go into a self-described “nerd rage” over the Ben Affleck Batman situation – “I need to believe that Batman can flip out at any moment and toss someone off a skyscraper, Affleck is not that man.”

At about 9:45, Brock and Sal took the stage with their acoustic guitars, playing a selection from each of their solo projects as well as a few stripped down TheCore. anthems. Highlights were “Josephine,” “Harold Camping,” “Seize the Carp” and their signature cover of “Trusty Chords,” for which they joked that they only have to pay royalties to Hot Water Music if they play it correctly, so the forgotten third verse was intentional. I was really happy to see that much of the crowd, even though unfamiliar with the duo, were smiling and nodding along with our local talent. And I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty cool seeing my friends play a stage where there’s an actual curtain closing on them after their set. Big time.

Lucero always draws a good sized crowd in Vegas and even with a chunk of our music scene out of town for LA’s FYF Fest this show was pretty packed. Like most Lucero shows, the fans were diverse – punks drawn to the influence of The Clash and The Replacements, country fans looking for modern day versions of Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, all enjoying the strong songwriting and tight performance the band is known for. They opened strong with “That Much Further West” and flew into other crowd favorites including “Nights Like These” and Jawbreaker cover “Kiss the Bottle.” The band started taking requests early, starting with “Bike Riders” from the Nobody’s Darlings LP, the whole crowd drunkenly shouting along with the “woah-oh-oh-ohs.”

Admittedly, I haven’t given their new Texas & Tennessee EP too many spins, but I was excited to hear the title track live and will be adding it to the top of my “stop neglecting these records” list. Frontman Ben Nichols joked to be happy to be playing in the air conditioning this time around, after needing to spit out a shot of whiskey due to the heat at last year’s outdoor Beauty Bar show. Air conditioning or no, Lucero is known for their very long sets and near superhuman endurance, and this show was no different, with the band playing late into the night to a sizeable and very excited crowd.

-Ashleigh Matview

Photos by Aaron Mattern | https://www.flickr.com/photos/akmofoto/