Tuesday 11.03.09: LUCERO “RAMBLIN’ ROADSHOW AND MEMPHIS REVUE” with JACK OBLIVIAN / JOHN PAUL KEITH & THE ONE FOUR FIVES @ echoplex

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Back when Lucero played warehouses and released scrappy attic recordings on hand-packaged LPs, the Memphis band felt like an epiphany. Granted, Lucero wasn’t the first group to smash punk zeal into country-rock tradition, but it was the best at the time, and did so on wholly punk-rock terms. Ten years on, the group has released 1372 Overton Park, its major-label debut. Not only is it a sonic leap for Lucero, it’s another epiphany: Having long outgrown the warehouse, leader Ben Nichols and crew have embraced their legendary Memphis forebears by adding a robust horn section (courtesy of Memphis soul legend Jim Spake) and an epic sweep on par with Lucero’s closest cousin, Drive-By Truckers. Overton’s tracks cover Nichols’ typically gravely domain—anthemic barnburners like “Sounds Of The City” to twang-laden weepers like “Can’t Feel A Thing”—but there’s also stomping Southern boogie on “The Devil And Maggie Chascarillo,” a raucous homage to Los Bros Hernandez’s Love And Rockets comics, and a newfound brassy punch that recalls everything from Stax classics to The Replacements’ Pleased To Meet Me. – AV Club

with:
Jack Oblivian
John Paul Keith & the One Four Fives

@ echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

8pm / $15 advance, $17 day of show /18+