Howdy Folks!

We finally got to go back to First Ave to have the rescheduled show of Lucero and Justin Wells, and the people were super excited about it right from the get-go!

The night opened up with Justin Wells, a Kentucky-based singer with a strong, full voice and a range of emotion portrayed from his microphone.

Leading us into the show with his newest album, Cynthiana, we got to hear some really tender vocals from Wells. Admittedly, had not heard of this performer before the show, but I did enjoy how he brought out real depth from his lyrics and was able to draw in the audience (which were pretty packed already!) to fully listen to him. He had just himself and a guitar on stage, and had a real nice, classic country-esque voice that was clear in tone. The real treat, however, was the final song he performed, putting down his guitar and opting to let his vocals take the forefront. Boy, did they! The performance absolutely enamored the crowd, and it was captivating listening to Wells sing with such heart. I really enjoyed his performance and picked up a cassette after the show, which has been great to listen to so far!

Lucero came on later to massive cheers from the pretty packed full crowd at this point, and they went right away into their album for the show, “Nobodys Darlins”.

What was really special about this show was seeing that this was a super dedicated crowd- everyone there really knew the lyrics, and had clearly been longtime fans, with call and responses from the vocalist to the crowd about “how old they were now”, and a clear sense of community from the band tying them together. I saw many couples dancing together, holding each other tight, as well as friends just having a good time with each other. Even for me, I was there with my mom and sister, and Lucero being my mom’s favorite band, it was a lot of fun getting to share the spaces with her and the crowd.

Going through the album sequentially, the songs that stood out to me (and are of course, their most popular) were “Bikeriders” and “All the Same to Me”. Hearing frontman Ben Nichols sing softly, especially in the latter song, was really nice and sweet, and although I’d heard this band off and on due to my mom’s influence, hearing them live was nice to know they’re just like their recordings.

Later, keyboard player Rick Steff joined Ben on stage for a duo song to play “The War”, with Steff bringing out an accordion that really added this somber atmosphere to the already pretty heavy song, but it was honestly my favorite part of the night.

Later big hits from the audience included “Nights Like These”, and the eventual encore ended with “It Gets the Worst at Night” to fully close out the night. I dare say I haven't seen a crowd that satisfied in a long time. It was really nice seeing so many people smiling instead of the usual mixed bag of emotions you get at most shows. People clearly had a great time at this one, and even though I don't listen to Lucero all that often, I'll definitely be back out for their next run just for a solid show if nothing else. The whole tour was a super clean show with a great opener that set the headliner up for success, and the crowd brought a real homey energy to a show that clearly had a deserving fanbase.