Concert Review: Country duo kicks off entertainment

Published 9:25 am Wednesday, August 3, 2016

The Grandstand entertainment for “The Six Best Days of Summer” has officially begun.

Country duo LOCASH performed Tuesday in the Grandstand at the Freeborn County Fair, kicking off five nights of headlining performances.

LOCASH, formerly known as LoCash Cowboys, is made up of songwriters and vocalists Chris Lucas and Preston Brust. Their highest-charting single thus far is “I Love This Life,” which reached a peak of No. 2 on the Country Airplay chart earlier this year. In addition to their own material, the members of LOCASH co-wrote Keith Urban’s No. 1 single “You Gonna Fly” and Tim McGraw’s “Truck Yeah.”

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The duo boasts a fun-loving vibe, evident in their performance Tuesday night. Looking to create a party atmosphere, band members welcomed audience members to move up and fill out the front standing-room-only section of the Grandstand venue.

“We need to fill this section up,” Brust said to the audience at one point. “We’ve got a party crowd here.”

Brust and Lucas interacted with the crowd throughout the night, using spotlights and the video screens new to the fair this year to get crowd members involved between songs. The crowd sang along with the band for a good portion of the evening, especially during fun, summer songs like “Drunk, Drunk.” Any energy the duo put out was given back to them by the energized crowd, despite a settling humidity and relatively warm temperatures. Brust himself acknowledged how impressed the band was with the crowd, especially for a Tuesday night performance.

LOCASH performed a good number of songs off their latest album, “The Fighters,” which came out in June. Among the newer material performed was the song “I Know Somebody.” The two bandmates said they expected the song to be at No. 20 on the charts, but found out today that it had actually reached No. 17.

The duo also performed hits by other artists, including Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and the Thomas Rhett-penned “Ring on Every Finger.”

The band performed “Truck Yeah,” which Lucas and Brust originally wrote for McGraw along with Chris Janson, who will also perform at this year’s fair. LOCASH band members said Janson will perform the song during his headlining night.

“Even though they told us not to write a song about trucks, we wrote a song about trucks,” Lucas said.

The Grandstand entertainment continues at 8:30 p.m. tonight with Janson’s performance.

About Colleen Harrison

Colleen Harrison is the photo editor at the Albert Lea Tribune. She does photography and writes general-assignment stories.

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