Thursday, May 24 – Lucero
with Soul Rebels, Bartender Brian
8 p.m.
The Beacham
46 N. Orange Ave.
407-246-1419
thebeacham.com
$15-$30
It’s a shame that Lucero are playing the Beacham rather than an intimate venue with cheaper libations, because new album Women & Work marks the Southern rock revivalists’ evolution from genre-bending country punks to extremely competent bar band. Piano and horns entered the mix in 2009, and the results have been both more full and more generic. Musically, Lucero now sounds similar to fellow substance enthusiasts the Hold Steady, although these bands exist on opposite ends of the energy spectrum; one is like a supernova of designer-drug spoken anthems, while the other is straight-up skip-the-lime sipping music. While it may be reductive to call them a working-class Kings of Leon, Ben Nichols definitely sings the blue-collar blues (lyrical tropes include “whiskey” and “women,” respectively) with that same Followill twang. – Allie Conti
