Austin Lucas @ Hawthorne Theater

I caught Austin Lucas' set in the lounge at the Hawthorne Theater on Sunday. Although he tours with a band, this was his final show in town before heading down to South by Southwest, and it was just him and his guitar. It'd been a while since I went to an acoustic one mic show, but his charisma filled the room, as he bantered with the audience between songs and even interjected humorous antidotes into the middle of a couple of them.

As you can tell from his press shot, his roots aren't purely country and folk. However, little of his hardcore roots are present in his current songs. They range from the lovelorn to barroom rave up, strummed with an intensity that'll fire up your drinking but not quite get you off the bar stool. He's got a good voice, and while he'd likely admit to stumbling a bit, he plays well too. I look forward to catching him next time he passes through, with or without his band in tow.