If you know me, you hear me talk a lot about Lucero. I’m obsessed with them and you will have your chance to check out why on Saturday, September 29th at First Avenue.
Lucero has long been admired in their hometown of Memphis, where they have hosted “The Lucero Family Block Party” every spring for a number of years. At the 2018 Block Party they celebrated their 20th anniversary as a band, with the city’s Mayor Jim Strickland officially declaring it “Lucero Day.” The group found their name in a Spanish/English dictionary. “Lucero” is variously translated as “bright star” or “morning star.” None of them can speak Spanish.
It’s been two decades since original members Ben Nichols, Brian Venable, Roy Berry, and John C. Stubblefield (keyboardist Rick Steff joined in 2006) started playing shows in Memphis. The band’s first show was April 13, 1998 at a warehouse space across the street from what is now the National Civil Rights Museum, the infamous Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. Their first set was six songs played to about six people. On August 3, 2018, record release day for Among the Ghosts, the band will be co-headlined Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. (It was definitely a life changing experience!) Come hear them play hits from their new album along with songs that will take you back to the early days of this truly life-changing group.
Brent Cowles will be opening the show. “HOW TO BE OKAY ALONE.” That’s what Brent Cowles scribbled in a notebook one afternoon as he grappled with the complexities of his newfound independence. It was meant to be the start of a list, a survival guide for navigating the solitude and loneliness of our increasingly isolated world, but instead, it turned out to be a dead end recipe for writer’s block. Months later, the Colorado native stumbled back onto his list, empty as the day he started it, but this time he recognized that the blank white page actually held a profound revelation, one that was hidden in plain sight. “I realized then that I actually didn’t know how to be okay alone,” reflects Cowles. “But I also realized that it was okay not to know, because having friends and family—and the kind of friends you turn into family—is what really matters.”
Tickets are still available here.
Remaining Tour Dates:
09/20 Atlanta, GA Terminal West
09/21 Atlanta, GA Terminal West
09/23 Tampa, FL The RITZ Yborr *
09/25 Charleston, SC Pour House *
09/26 Birmingham, AL Saturn Birmingham *
09/28 Chicago, IL Metro Chicago *
09/29 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue & 7th St Entry *
09/30 Peoria, IL Monarch Music Hall *
10/02 Detroit, MI Saint Andrew’s Halll *
10/03 Akron, OH Musica *
10/04 Columbus, OH Skully’s Music-Diner *
10/05 Cincinnati, OH Cathedral at Masonic Center *
10/10 Charlottesville, VA Jefferson *
10/11 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
10/12 Brooklyn, NY Warsaw
10/13 Boston, MA Paradise Boston
10/14 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
11/02 Dallas, TX The Rustic – Dallas ~
11/07 San Diego, CA The Observatory North Park ~
11/09 San Francisco, CA The Warfield ~
11/10 Portland, OR Dante’s ~
11/11 Seattle, WA Showbox SoDo ~
11/13 Missoula, MT The Wilma Theater ~
11/16 Kansas City, MO The Madrid Theatre ~
11/17 St. Louis, MO OFF BROADWAY MUSIC VENUE ~
11/18 St. Louis, MO Off Broadway ~
* – w/ Brent Cowles
~ – w/ Strand of Oaks
