Lucero returns to Baton Rouge – Memphis rock ‘n’ roll band to perform at The Varsity

Nearly five years have passed since Lucero played in Baton Rouge. The Memphis rock ‘n’ roll band’s last performance in the Capital City was in 2009.

“It has been a long time,” lead singer Ben Nichols says. “We’ve been keeping real busy.”

Busy is an understatement. In the years since that Chelsea’s show, the band has released a couple of critically-acclaimed albums, including 2012’s Women & Work, pitched in a song to help Slim Dunlap of The Replacements pay for medical bills, and played a few shows with acts like Titus Andronicus and The Black Keys. The band has also performed in Europe a couple of times.

“We’ve just been keeping on the road,” Nichols says. “We just missed Baton Rouge.”

Lucero will perform Saturday at The Varsity. Special guest Jonny Fritz will open. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $17 online at TicketWeb.

While living on the road, Lucero has earned a spot as one of America’s more underrated rock bands. Its sound has taken a turn from whiskey-drunk alt-country to a horn-filled, Stax Records sound not unlike the band’s Memphis predecessors.

“I’ve been in Memphis quite a while now,” Nichols says. “Pretty much everyone in the band is from Memphis. Rick [Steff] and our horn players Jim [Spake] and Scott [Thompson] have been playing here forever. I’ve been learning about Memphis music and history, and I wanted to incorporate that history and sound into what Lucero was doing.”

The funny thing is if you read up on them, you’ll see the word “punk” peppered throughout stories on the band. Though the band has a bit of attitude and swagger during its performances, its sound is anything but punk—a genre that Nichols and his bandmates had flirted with before Lucero started.

“We wanted to play a type of music that would age more gracefully than punk rock,” he says. “We wanted something we could play the rest of our lives and not feel silly doing it. I didn’t want to be trapped in one genre. From the beginning of the band, we decided to go the other direction. We grew into a rock ‘n’ roll band that can play fast, loud stuff, then can take it way down and play super-slow, sad stuff and anything in between. I like having that freedom.”

Though the band has had a lengthy career already, they aren’t planning to give it up anytime soon. This year, Nichols says the band is working on releasing a live record before getting back into the studio.

“The live album sums up the show we’ve been doing the last number of years,” he says. “It’s time to get back in the studio after that. For now, we’re staying on the road to pay the bills. On the breaks, we’ll be working on the new record. I need to start writing the next record.”

For more information on the band, visit luceromusic.com.

Listen to Women & Work below.