A few years ago I wrote a piece arguing that Local H was one of the hardest working and most consistent rock bands currently in existence. This remains very true. Local H bandleader Scott Lucas has led the band through decades of albums and I have yet to find a single one that doesn't feel essential. Lucas has played in various other outfits to explore different corners of his own musical interests, and in recent years expanded into podcasting as well, so I think one key to his success is his refusal to stay still. Hell, when faced with the inability to play club shows during the earlier phase of the pandemic, Local H took to playing drive-ins rather than stay home and remain inactive.
Lucas' interest in film has also grown over the last couple of years, growing from a sharp-eyed critic writing about the movies he consumed (often at Chicago's Music Box Theatre) to a filmmaker of his own movie.
These two worlds are about to collide, and Chicago will be ground zero as a new chapter in the history of Local H begins.
Tonight marks the debut of Lucas' debut cinematic feature, LIFERS: A Local H Movie at the Music Box Theatre. The film takes inspiration from the '70s midnight rock movies that would play local theaters, mixing a live performance with Local H with scripted footage with local actors and luminaries wending its way throughout the show. It's neither documentary nor a traditionally structured story, but a mixture Lucas has concocted to reflect his own multidimensional vision of the live experience. (I've learned all this through listening to Lucas, but I highly recommend checking out this excellent interview Block Club Chicago's Gwen Inhat conducted with Lucas a few days ago for more details than I've heard before!) A word of warning: Lucas has no plans to stream the film, so seeing it in the theater with him is your only option for now. Don't miss it!
Wednesday night sees Local H returning to Metro to play a full album show of their 2004 album Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles, recently rereleased by the band after being out of print and somewhat lost in a label legal shuffle. Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles was produced after a period of experimentation from Lucas—at least one track got its start as a song in the very short-lived stoner rock combo Lucas was in named A Band Called Horse—and was the most adventurous he'd gotten in the studio to that date. As a result, the collection of songs expanded the band's sound without diluting it, adding layers of new approaches atop the structures Lucas had carefully built up. Many of the fans claim this to be one of their favorite albums, and I believe Lucas would agree that it might be his as well.
Whatever Happened To P.J. Soles? (20th Anniversary Remaster) by Local HThis show comes at the end of the latest Local H tour, a tour that almost didn't happen. Just before the band was to leave on a stint opening for Helmet, that headliner canceled the entire tour. Scott Lucas, lifer that he is, had almost completely rebooked the tour in a handful of days. So, Wednesday's Metro show is not just a victory lap for Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles, it's a celebration of the band's resilience and ability to change direction at a second's notice.
With the debut of LIFERS: A LOCAL H MOVIE tonight, and the celebration of the unkillable tour alongside their love for Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles, it feels like Scott Lucas stands at the precipice of a brand-new chapter of his own lifers story, and it's one we should all be eager to see.
LIFERS: A Local H Movie plays at the Music Box Theatre tonight, followed by a Q&A with Scott Lucas, and tickets are still available. Local H plays the Metro tomorrow night and I hope you already have tickets for that!