So Lucero last night was pretty awesome. The first band, John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives were an excellent find, playing a modern version of late 50's rock and roll. Awesome guitar work, a cool solo in every song, and just a great all around feel. I dropped 15 bucks on their CD and their new 7", and it was well worth it to support a band that I don't think anyone outside of Tennessee has ever heard of. Cam and I agreed, if that band was around 50 years ago they'd be huge. Today, it's a niche market, but Cam and I both loved it.

The second act, which was the first band with a different singer, was a guy called Jack Oblivian. He wasn't great. His voice was weird and the songs slogged around for a long time without ever going anywhere. Passable.

Then Lucero slayed. Now, having seen them with the horns, keyboard, and slide guitar (doubling the amount of guys on stage from four every other time I've seen them to EIGHT this time), I can fully embrace the new instruments. Really, the horns were never THAT big a deal, but they were offputting, as was was the keyboard when it showed up on Rebels (I thought it made them sound like a Bruce Springsteen cover band). But having seen them all on stage together, I'm fully behind it, and I realize that it's not just little studio flourishes. The horns and keyboard fit really well into older songs as well, and I actually found myself wishing they'd figured out a way to put horns into ALL their songs. The set list was incredibly solid, and, like Brian's show in New York, they played for over two hours. That's what I'm talking about. Hearing the new songs was great, although I kind of wish they'd left out 6's and 7's, which is maybe the weakest song off the new album, and played My Best Girl or Chain Link Fence. But, as a band puts out more music, some of the old stuff has to get left behind. I do appreciate how they represent EVERY album (sans the Attic Tapes) at their shows. They do a great job of mixing in old and new, so everyone should leave happy. And I was happy to see they had their usual "set list" of songs, which meant they came out and played six songs or so, then took requests, then played some songs they had planned, then took requests, etc. I like the loose feel of the shows, and it's good to see that even though their arrangement has gotten more complicated and they're on a major label now, they're still able to be free. Also, I love how the bass player doesn't give a flying fuck about the smoking ban, and has smoked every single time I've seen them. Smoking is so cool, kids! I was especially pleased to hear The Last Pale Light in the West, off Ben's solo album, and a new song called The Other Side of Lonesome (or something). I was surprised to hear a new song, since they just put out an album, but Ben explained that it was left off the newest album but should surface somewhere at some point. It was a nice little Ben number, and while it was good, I'm not too sorry it was left off Overton.

So that's that. Then it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. There's at least a foot out there right now, and it's supposed to snow straight through until Friday. Which is totally lame. But work was canceled today and tomorrow, so I guess some good has come out of it. I was especially grateful for it today, since I didn't get to bed until after 12:30 last night. Sucks because I still got up at 7 this morning to get ready for work, and THEN got the call to not come in, but it was better than going to work and then finding out I didn't need to have gone.

Magnolia Electric Co came out with a Daytrotter session this past week, as did the Get Up Kids. So all you people who want free good music should go download those. Carly Simon did too, I think, which I thought was weird, but whatever. Daytrotter's an equal opportunity recording studio.

The Great Adam Cooking Adventure has commenced, and I've made a nice pizza with green peppers, olives, pepperoni, and mushrooms on it. It was pretty great. I did screw up the first dough though, because I didn't read the directions and got a little overzealous with my desire to ACTUALLY be making pizza. I smashed that shit down and tried to flatten it out, throw it up in the air, etc. But, with Pillsbury dough you can't do that. You just have to unroll it. By the time I realized that, the damage was done though. So, that was a $2 learning experience. Then I made chicken fajitas, and goddamn I'm amazing. I mixed my own seasoning, made my own guacamole, and sauteed my own veggies and meat, and it was awesome. I've also spiced up my lunch sandwiches with some tomato and spinach, made a nice buffalo chicken salad, and made a good breakfast burrito. So the moral of the story is, I'm currently looking for a good retail space to open my new restaurant, which I will call GACA in honor of the Adventure. If I can't open a Dunkin Donuts, I'll open a fajitas, pizza, breakfast burrito restaurant. The man can't keep me down!