The Return Of The Stout City Luchadores

This past weekend saw the return of Victoria’s only masked band. The story of the Luchadores is a long one. Plagued with the same problems most punk rock bands have… day jobs, band girlfriends, egos, from the fall of 2005 to the band’s show in 2008 “Warriors Never Die” the band played Barnfests, Wrestling Rings, CWV halls and a fatal grasp at fame on reality TV. The TV show really soured us I think. By the time it was done, we were the tightest musicians I had ever played with, but I could feel we had lost our passion to try to reach easy fame. In the end we lost the chance to represent our state, but not after we had beat hundreds of bands in the Austin area. Imagine that… a little garage band from Victoria Texas beating out signed bands with jager sponsorships and slots on the warped tour and ozzfest. It really did happen. I guess we just wanted to prove we could do it. The band wasn’t made for that. I’ve always kind of seen the Luchadores as my destiny and the band I always wanted to play with. The masks are more than just a gimmick. We uphold the old mythology of the Mexican Luchadore as a symbol of his local community and seek to fight against cover bands, shady promoters and crappy scenes everywhere. While The Loveletter has always been a personal project, The Stout City Luchadores are my vehicle to fast music and fast times. So when you bring a band like this back, you got to be careful. A revival is only as good as the crowd wants it to be. Three years in music years is a long time. Kids not yet old enough to drive who used to see us in CWV halls are now driving and in college. Some fans have never even heard of us, If they knew who we were under the masks they probably wouldn’t support a dinosaur band like us. So the pressure to gain new fans is great. The old fans are even harder to win back. The Luchadores were a great band in 2005, how do you convince them that they are a better band in 2011? A lot of the music and shows have been replaced with a feeling and emotion that is deeper than the actual music itself. A feeling of friendship, singing along at shows and a time that people remember as fun and exciting. (Time has a way of making us believe the past was more fun). Reality is tough, competing with a memory is hard, but a testament to what the old band was. So the band came back. In rare drunken and rocking form. We hit the stage with as much gusto as we could, gave a blistering 12 song 45 minute set. The crowd didn’t miss a beat. I guess getting back on the saddle was as easy as we thought it would be after all. Now that I have my perfect punk rock band back, and learn all the lessons I’ve learned from my previous bands, I can’t wait to take it as far as it can go.