(Lucero @ The Rumba Cafe, 4.26.2008)
We found out about the show by a last-minute tip from a long lost friend (who disappeared as quickly as he arrived). Quick, make a decision, it’s 9:25 and they go on at 10: either pay $12 to see your favorite live band at a place you’ve been to or …
There wasn’t another option, it’s just difficult switching from donation-only shows.
We were foolish to think thrifty. Plenty of old friends were around to hear familiar songs that had been tested on the road hundreds of times, 200 performances a year, I’ve heard.
This time they sounded road weary – songs were slower and sadder, but appropriate for that ambition-less evening. Two-and-a-half-hours later they called it quits after every request had been fulfilled.
I first heard Lucero in the spring of 2001 when Steven played “My Best Girl.” I remember thinking (and I still feel this way), this song is one of the corniest and most awful I’ve ever heard. Seven years later - from the Legion of Doom, to Akron’s Lime Spider and Brooklyn’s Northsix - I’ve seen Lucero live more times than any other band that didn’t include my friends, and this was one of the better times.
