Lobero LIVE presents influential rock bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven at 8 p.m. Dec. 28, 2015. Get a double dose of pop punk guitarist David Lowery as both his influential bands take the stage.
Camper Van Beethoven is known combining an iconoclastic, irony-laced lyrical stance with a free-spirited eclecticism that encompasses a dizzying array of influences from punk to folk and all manner of world music.
Cracker has been weaving subtle yet undeniable country twang throughout their sound since their 1992 self-titled debut. With their new double album, Berkeley to Bakersfield, the alt-rock radio band known for such hits as “Low” and “Get Off This,” dives headfirst into the California country sound.
Eight albums (one platinum and three gold) and a barrel full of anthemic hit songs later, Cracker endures, using their ability to weave decades of influences into an album that is seamlessly riveting.
Lowery, in the mid-80s, in Santa Cruz, Calif., formed Camper Van Beethoven, and their “Take the Skinheads Bowling” became an instant college radio staple.
When CVB disbanded on tour in Sweden, following their second major label release, Lowery formed Cracker with his longtime friend Johnny Hickman. Cracker’s emergent sound had less in common with Camper’s exotic excursions and was more in synch with the Kinks and Southern roots music.
They released their self-titled debut on Virgin, and following the #1 Modern Rock hit “Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now),” the band became a minor commercial sensation.
The platinum-selling Kerosene Hat contained the enormous, era-defining hit single “Low,” as well as “Get Off This,” and “Eurotrash Girl.”
When the dust settled, Cracker found itself with an ever-growing, devoted following both in the U.S. and throughout Europe. Today the band stays well connected to yet another generation of fans via Internet, many of whom were kids when these alt-rock godfathers were first ruling rock radio.
In the second half of the 1980’s, Camper Van Beethoven-David Lowery (vocals, guitar), Victor Krummenacher (bass, vocals), Greg Lisher (guitar), Jonathan Segel (violin, guitar, keyboards) and Chris Pedersen (drums), plus late addition David Immergllick (guitar and various stringed instruments), was one of its era’s most original and influential indie rock bands.
CVB’s visionary embrace of disparate genres established them as innovators, while their songs’ combination of barbed satire and poignant humanism stymied those who’d attempt to pigeonhole them as a mere novelty.
New Roman Times is perhaps Camper Van Beethoven’s most musically accomplished and conceptually ambitious effort to date.
The album — on the band’s own Pitch-A-Tent label (via Vanguard Records), the same imprint that issued much of Camper’s seminal ’80s work — is a vivid, emotion-charged song cycle that merges the group’s sense of musical adventure with a fanciful rock-opera storyline that’s rife with parallels to America’s current political landscape.
Tickets for Camper Van Beethoven & Cracker are on sale now at Lobero.com, or by calling the Lobero Box Office at 805.963.0761.
Tickets are $29, with no VIP tickets available for this performance. All prices include facility fee.
Complete calendar listings can be found at Lobero.com.
— Angie Bertucci represents the Lobero Theatre.