Lukas Nelson at the Troubadour Review

Seldom in the history of Rock and Roll has a band risen from being a group of well-intentioned novices to one of the greatest live bands in the world so quickly and so dramatically.  Just as The Beatles famously survived the trial-by-fire of the fabled Cavern Club, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real (alongside brother, Micah Nelson of Insects vs Robots), spent last year playing with a certain aging Canadian rocker.  In between the all-time greatest versions of “Down By the River” and a plethora of rarely-played album cuts, the fans and rock press the world over were all making the same mistake. We were too busy calling “Rebel Content” one of the greatest and most important tours in the singular and iconic career of “Uncle Neil,” that we forgot to celebrate the fact that in the midst of what was arguably the most incredible Rock and Roll fantasy camp of all time; Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real were in that of themselves becoming one of the greatest live bands in the world.

This brings us to last Thursday’s show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, a venue that always manages to feel equally vibrant yet hallowed. Between approximately 8:30pm and 12:15am, Insects vs Robots and Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real played sets that further established Insects vs Robots’ brand of Millennial Fusion Raga Rock and cemented Promise of the Real’s reputation as their generation’s band of choice for Top Shelf Rock and Roll that Matters.

One of the great pleasures of live music is going to see multiple bands on a bill and walking into the venue in blissful anticipation of how immaculately the entire evening is going to play.  Such is the case of these two remarkable bands.  One of my favorite facets of Insects vs Robots opening for Promise of the Real is knowing that the opening set will always be at least an hour, allowing the stellar band to play a real set and make a fully-formed artistic statement. The biggest difference in the band’s show since their December run (that also found them in the opening slot on the same bill) is how much Micah has since pushed himself and evolved as a showman. While it’s always been great fun to watch Micah play Rock and Roll guitar solos on the Charango, it’s been an even greater thrill to watch him learn how to best communicate the energy and message of his music as a front man and performer.  I also found it hard to take my eyes off of Milo Gonzalez for most of the band’s set. His playing perfectly weaves together the band’s various world music influences with straight-up Rock and Roll, while he consummately plays with a palpable and genuine zest for life.  Milo also had the best line on stage all night, referring to the group as “a Bernie Sanders cover band.” To which Micah laughed and added, “Playing all the hits.”

At eighteen songs, Promise of the Real’s set was an intelligently-curated mix of material from their newly released “Something Real,” presented alongside cuts from their first two albums and various live releases, mixed with the band’s well-known penchant for brilliantly chosen and executed covers. The show followed a familiar format of Lukas playing three songs “Solo Acoustic” (“All the Pretty Horses,” “Mystery,” “Austin”), before being joined by bassist Corey McCormick, drummer Anthony Logerfo, and percussionist Tato Melgar.

Intentionally or not, the show traced the almost exactly eight-year journey of Promise of the Real up to this moment in time. After Lukas began the set with some of his earliest songs, the rest of the band joined for several more, during which Lukas continued playing acoustic guitar. These included Promise of the Real fan favorites “I Ain’t Gonna Die Alone” and “Running Shine” before closing that section of the show with “Goin’ Back” from Neil Young’s 1978 gem of an album “Comes a Time.”

After Lukas picked up his Fender Stratocaster, the band began the “full band electric” section with five songs from their latest album, “Something Real.” The band’s most recent release could easily be confused with one of the greatest albums from The Allman Brothers Band, especially “Ugly Color” and “Set Me Down On the Cloud.” Both songs, played during this portion of the show, play like staples of FM radio during the glory days of “Album-Oriented Rock and Roll,” and feel key to understanding Promise of the Real as songwriters and musicians. By the point in the evening, the whole show was feeling like such a throwback to the kind of Rock and Roll show that would have been at the Troubadour in 1973, that I almost expected to turn around and see Cameron Crowe filming stock footage.

Therein lies the intangible ingredient to what makes Lukas, Corey, Anthony, and Tato such a captivating and dynamic group of performers. In the wrong hands, everything about Promise of the Real could feel like a series of cheap and tedious hipster affectations. But what makes this band so special is that with every fiber of their being, musicianship, and artistry, all four band members come off to their audience as being genuine hippies, cowboys, outlaws, and stoners. Dare I say it, they might be the millennial’s own “Natural Renegades.”

After another pair of deep cuts from this still young band’s already staggeringly prolific songbook, they played their show-stopping rendition of Paul Simon’s “Diamond’s On the Souls of Her Shoes.” This was followed by the band’s most memorable and resonate composition to date, “(Forget About) Georgia,” which somehow manages to be both a bittersweet relationship dirge in the vein of The Eagles’ “The Best of My Love,” yet is played uptempo enough and sung with enough conviction that there are also emotional notes that feel more of a piece with The Eagles’ “Already Gone.” In other words, this is the definitive break-up anthem for lovelorn and pensive hippies trying to understand their heartache through a tie-dye colored lens. The experience of hearing this live again was so richly satisfying on every level, providing another banner highlight of an already memorable show.

After closing out their set with another pair of older favorites including “Start to Go” from the band’s first album, all nine band members from both outfits reappeared on stage and once again played “Like An Inca” from Neil Young’s 1982 album “Trans” (which I like to gleefully refer to as the first album in Neil Young’s “commercially unrepresentative” trilogy), and the title track from The Doors’ “L.A. Woman.”

These two songs were a superlative Rock and Roll show in that of themselves, and anyone would have gotten the price of admission out of these two epic jams alone. This was the perfect, cathartic way to culminate the evening. Every musician got to play every note they still had in them, and were jumping, dancing, sweating, and soloing all over the stage. This was truly Renegade Rock at its finest. While everyone on stage did meaningful work during this section, extra respect must be given to Micah for his ability to get under the surface of these lyrics and pull out so much of what these trenchant lines are trying to convey. One of the reasons it’s a wonderful thing that these musicians are highlighting this underappreciated work from one of the greatest writers of all time, is that the song is often viewed through the lens through which people often experience or talk about “Trans” on a broader scale, that it’s easy to lose sight of how great some of those songs really are at their core. Thanks for the reminder, Micah and Company.

Even though the show ended around 12:15am, this was a night of stragglers and die-hards hanging around the Troubadour lobby, front bar, merchandise booth, and sidewalk outside. This was one of those shows that left a palpable feeling in the venue that nobody wanted to part with a moment sooner than they had to.

I so badly want to see these bands again, that I’m selfishly frustrated that the rest of their year seems booked with playing with “Uncle Neil.” But since the “Rebel Content” tour hit Southern California last October, I’ve been saying that Neil Young + Promise of the Real is the greatest live band in the world, and indeed remains such. I know that line-up is playing a couple of high-profile dates in the desert in October, to which I’m hoping I can still somehow manage to score a ticket. In the meantime, here’s hoping Insects vs Robots and Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real are able to barnstorm through California together again soon. Although I have a number of friends who have followed them tour (including most notably seeing five shows during the week of the last December run), I regrettably have yet to have had the pleasure of following either band on the road. I’ll have to change that on the next time they come through. Here’s hoping it won’t be too long a wait.

 

Upcoming Dates for Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

Solana Beach, CA Belly Up	Sat May 14
Denver, CO Bluebird Theater	Mon May 16
Omaha, NE The Waiting Room Lounge	Tue May 17
Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall	Thu May 19
Newport, KY The Southgate House Revival	Sat May 21
Nashville, TN 3rd & Lindsley Bar & Grill	Sun May 22
New York, NY Bowery Presents	Tue May 24
Washington, DC Gypsy Sally’s	Wed May 25
Philadelphia, PA World Cafe Live	Thu May 26
Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Bowl	Fri May 27
Glasgow, United Kingdom The SSE Hydro	Sun Jun 5
Belfast, United Kingdom REAL	Tue Jun 7
Dublin 1, Ireland 3Arena	Wed Jun 8
Leeds, United Kingdom First Direct Arena	Fri Jun 10
London, United Kingdom The O2	Sat Jun 11
Lille, France Zenith Arena Lille	Mon Jun 13
Lyon, France Halle Tony Garnier	Wed Jun 15
Marseille, France Le Dôme	Thu Jun 16
Madrid, Spain Madrid-Barajas Airport	Sat Jun 18
Toulouse, France Le Zénith	Tue Jun 21
Paris, France AccorHotels Arena	Thu Jun 23
Antwerp, Belgium Antwerps Sportpaleis	Fri Jun 24
Rättvik, Sweden Dalhalla	Tue Jul 5
Larvik, Norway Larvik golfklubb	Thu Jul 7
Amsterdam, Netherlands Ziggo Dome	Sat Jul 9
Amsterdam, Netherlands Ziggo Dome	Wed Jul 13
Rome, Italy Baths of Caracalla	Fri Jul 15
Lucca, Province of Lucca, Italy Piazza Napoleone	Sat Jul 16
Leipzig, Germany Monument to the Battle of the Nations	Wed Jul 20
Berlin, Germany Waldbühne Berlin	Thu Jul 21
Klam, Austria Burg Clam	Sat Jul 23
Huntsville, UT Snowbasin Resort	Sun Sep 4