“How much damage can we do in a gigantic field?” asked Ben Nichols, frontman of Tennessee rockers Lucero, after recognising some faces in the crowd. “Enough” he joked. BOON reviewed Lucero six months ago and the crowd was lively then to say the least.

The Black Deer faithful experienced one of the best sets of the festival. Lucero are one hellova rock band, typically American but with no compromise, a heavy touring schedule, tattoos and integrity. They play songs about love, dancing, whiskey and Tennessee.

Kicking off with Among The Ghosts and Slow Dancing, the set included To My Dearest Wife, On My Way Downtown, Texas & Tennessee and Union Pacific Line.

Everything Has Changed had a great groove, not quite the Bob Dylan groove from his track of the same name but just as effective. Taking a sip of Jim Beam, Nichols’ asked “Do you have Angel’s Envy whiskey over here? It’s good stuff. That’s probably what that song was about.”

The tender Loving, had Nichols’ gruff voice juxtaposing the beautiful lyric ‘might not be good enough for them but I just wanna be good enough for you’. Cover Me, also from the latest album had powerful guitar riffs. “It gets happier from here” promised Nichols. “Not just yet – but it does.”

Nichols said the country boogie Hello My Name Is Izzy was “some goofy sh*t I never dreamed we’d record or play live.” He wrote it for his young daughter to distract her from distracting him whilst he was writing the songs for the 2018 Among The Ghosts album. This brought a little levity and humour to what was an incredibly intense performance.

File Lucero under the ‘one of the best live bands that you’ll see’ category. Brilliant.

Words and Live Photo by Chaz Brooks