In many ways, an album release party is like the day when you get your driver's license. A band has a set of songs that have been tested under the watchful guise of a producer, honed to precision over hours of practice and constructed with several solitary instruments. Still, the first live show is like the moment when your foot hits the gas, and the producers, sound technicians and machinery are nowhere to be found. It's just the band and the music.
And on Saturday night, Luego proved that Ocho, its follow-up to 2009's Taped-together Stories, is ready to hit the road. The Tomahawks opened with a brief set of energetic, driving pop tunes that lit up the dark Nightlight stage.
As Luego played, Patrick Phelan's occasionally gravelly vocals wavered between pristine pop and gritty cowboy stoicism, blending effortlessly with Charles Cleaver's nimble keyboard and the strains of electric and acoustic guitars. It was a performance akin to Ocho's troubadour aesthetic — a full, rich sound achieved in the Nightlight's intimate confines, with the band's dextrous instrumentation and Phelan's emotive vocals as the focal point.
Photos by Robert Turner Story
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