The Bandos are back, baby! Derek, Diego, Emilio, and Jerry, better known as The Last Bandoleros, along with accordionist Percy Cardona, played their first live show in over a year for a sold-out, limited capacity audience this past Thursday night at 3rd & Lindsley in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve been a fan of these guys for a long time, since I discovered them completely by chance opening for Hunter Hayes in 2016. Funnily enough, they were also the last show I attended a little over a year ago, right before the pandemic hit.
Musician and friend of the band, Kree Harrison, and her band kicked this whole thing off with a few songs, and I’ll never be able to replicate or adequately describe the emotions I felt when all these musicians took to the stage and kicked off this show. It was like going to my first concert all over again. Do you remember the first time you ever heard live music? I was there for my younger brother’s first concert and for my best friend’s, and I’ll never forget the looks on their faces as the sounds of the stage washed over them. Feeling the kick drum deep in my chest, hearing the richness of the guitar, and Kree’s vocals absolutely flooding the crowd was a feeling unlike any other. It truly felt like it was my first time ever encountering live music, a feeling I never dreamed I’d get to experience again, and what an incredible feeling it was.
Having never seen TLB headline a show before, and this having been my first show where I could legally drink, it was one hell of a party! After Kree’s set, they came out and immediately jumped into ‘Lead the Way’, the opening track from their latest record, Live From Texas. What a way to start a show. High energy, tight harmonies, and loud as could be, they immediately set the bar high. Their set consisted of the perfect mix of older songs from their first record, newer releases from Live From Texas, and brand-new, never-before-heard tunes – whether you’ve never heard of these guys or you know all their songs by heart, there’s no way you could have been bored.
What stood out to me most of the Live From Texas stuff was the intro to ‘Let Me Love You’. I’ve been spinning Live From Texas regularly since it was released last April, so it’s safe to say I know this record backwards and forwards. The album version of ‘Let Me Love You’ has this fun little back and forth between Diego and the audience, and they replicated that during this show. Nothing delighted me more than getting to actually participate in that call-and-response in real life instead of just in my car. That audience involvement made the show that much more fun!
They played 4 brand-new, never-before-heard (at least by me!) songs, ‘Walkin’ & Talkin’’, ‘Somewhere in Texas’, ‘Mas Dinero’, and ‘That Kind of Cowboy’. Maybe I’m biased because I love this band, but I was blown away by every single one of these tunes. I got each of them on video, and I cannot stop replaying them. I’m going to single out ‘That Kind of Cowboy’ because of the 4 new songs, this one shocked me the most. I think it’s their most bold song yet, with less of a Tejano and more of a hard rock feel. I remember sitting in the audience just in awe of this one. That said, all of the new songs were incredible, and I’m crossing my fingers that all of these songs make it onto their next album (I’m also crossing my fingers that said record comes out soon!), because these songs are just as good, if not better (dare I say it?), than their oldest ones. All 4 of these songs deserve the studio treatment and to then be released, in my humble opinion!
Anyone who was at this show and knows me knows that I can’t get through this review without talking about the Tom Petty cover. I’d been secretly hoping they might slip one of those in – I’ve heard them do two (‘American Girl’ and ‘You Wreck Me’) on their weekly web series, Around a Neon Cactus, and on various pandemic live streams, but I had yet to hear one in person. They busted out their cover of ‘You Wreck Me’, and that might have been the highlight of my night. Even the band knows how much I love Tom Petty, and they crushed this cover. I will never be able to say enough good things about that.
Something I love most about these guys and about this show in particular is how they made me feel like I’m a part of the Bandos family. I know they had plenty of friends in the audience, but with each of them that I approached after the show, I was greeted with hugs and treated like I was a friend too, not just some fan. Kind artists are the best artists, and these guys go above and beyond every time.
I believe the difference between a good band and a great band is in the quality of their live show. It’s one thing to produce good sounds in the studio, and it’s another to produce them live – some bands do better than others. The Last Bandoleros are absolutely a great band. Hearing them live is like hearing an alternate version of the record – their live sound isn’t a carbon copy of the record, but it is every bit as good. I’m not the only one who thinks so either; this show was so good that the sold-out crowd gave them a standing ovation and convinced them to come back out for an encore. If they were expecting one, they certainly weren’t cocky about it – I ended up with a setlist and there wasn’t an encore written in like you’ll find on some setlists.
They played this show at 110% - everything was high energy, the harmonies were out of this world, they played incredibly, the fan favorites were on point, the newer stuff was on point, the brand-new songs were on point - you’d never know they hadn’t played for an audience in over a year, that’s how tight everything was. They are some of the most talented musicians I’ve ever seen and I’m already chomping at the bit to see them again. If you ever find yourself at one of their shows, they’re going to blow your mind.
Go check these guys out on social media at @lastbandoleros, check out their YouTube channel for all kinds of fun content, and stay tuned to their social media and website for updates on the return of Around a Neon Cactus and new tour dates!