On Friday, we drove what should have been about an hour and twenty minutes from Madison to DeKalb, IL. Turns out there are a lot of train tracks to cross and unlit two lane highways that get you from here to there, which led us to get lost amongst the farmland for about a half an hour. Upon arriving to Otto’s we were surprised to hear that there was absolutely no drinking allowed upstairs where the shows were being held. Instead, you had to descend two flights of stairs into the basement where drinking was allowed. This rule/policy is apparently their method to curb underage drinking in venues, which by all measures of success usually doing the wristband thing for those 21+ has worked pretty well everywhere else – perhaps something they should consider.

We got there in time to catch the latter half of the American Princes set, which was as loud as it was impressive. There’s no denying we were there to see the maturation of Catfish Haven on their quasi home turf and follow that up by being rocked to pieces by Lucero. Catfish Haven was greeted to a warm reception by friends and family. While the majority of those in attendance were (presumably) there to see Lucero there is definitely a lot of their fans who have come to adore Catfish Haven from recent tours with the group. For multiple songs culled from their two releases the crowd sang along word for word as singer George Hunter belted out his heartbreaking lyrics.

It had been some time since I’d seen the band return to their original three piece line-up, which remains my preferred format. While there were moments when I was expecting the horn section to come in, there is something so special about seeing these guys as I originally did as they were first being signed to Secretly Canadian. Highlights of their set included “Down By Your Fire” and “Crazy For Leaving” off their most recent release, Tell Me, but their signature and most well-received song continues to be “Please Come Back” off the EP which bears the same name.

Lucero took the stage shortly after, beginning their set with their trademark opener, “That Much Further West.” Thus began the two hour plus performance which found them following some semblance of a set list before they began taking and honoring requests. The band continues to enjoy a fiercely local fan base that sings along and relates to pretty much every lyric singer Ben Nichols belts out – and Friday night was no different. Songs from their most recent album, Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers provided some of the evenings highpoints especially on Springsteen inspired songs like “I Can Get Us Out Of Here Tonight” and “What Else Would You Have Me Be.”

After playing a significant set of music the band exited to leave Nichols to himself to play just a couple more songs, before bringing the band out once again – they followed that cycle twice. There’s definitely a sense of feeling at home on the stage for these guys and they’re the type of band that wants to make sure everyone there feels like they got a fair return for the money they paid to be in the audience that night. I don’t think anyone could argue they didn’t get that and then some on Friday night.

On a personal highlight, it was nice running into and catching up with Eric and his wife from Can You See The Sunset – a fine Chicago guy with a great looking blog. Check out Eric’s review and photos and make sure to check out his page on the regular, it’s looking downright fantastic these days.

Myspace: Lucero
Myspace: Catfish Haven
MP3: Catfish Haven – Crazy For Leaving