Brian Lopez fans, all 21 and older, gathered about 100 strong at Club Congress Friday night to support the release of his new album “Static Noise.”
He seemed right at home playing downtown — his old stomping grounds when he attended Tucson High School and the University of Arizona — as he shared intimate interactions, birthday wishes and drinks with the audience.
Just minutes before 10 p.m., as the band checked their instruments and sound levels, the room filled with fans, many of them double fisting beers or cocktails and a group of hardcore fans — most of them women in the 20s — hugged the stage front.
When the lights went out and the stage went dark, Lopez’s fans cheered and whistled. A white static projected over the back of the stage, which was topped with white orbs, Styrofoam heads and airplanes atop Congress’s ubiquitous red velvet backdrop. Lopez’s Dark Hearted Conquistadors band — dual guitars and bass up front backed by a violin, cello, conga and drums — dressed all in black, emerged bathed in red light.
Lopez, 31, appeared center stage wearing his signature gray leather jacket, white pants, snakeskin cowboy boots and stripped tank top with a turquoise embedded Southwestern Indian eagle chain.
“How we feeling tonight?” Lopez asked the crowd a couple songs into the night and someone yelled back, “How you feeling?”
“It’s been awhile since I put out an album,” Lopez said, as he gently plucked the six strings of his black and white guitar. “It feels good to get it out.”
Throughout the night the band transitioned seamlessly through Lopez’s catalog, alternating a soft track from his new album with a more high intensity rocker. The audience shifted from a soft sway to a harmonious tap or nod. When he sang his new song, “I Don’t,” the crowd applauded in a similar harmony.
During some jams each band member would bob their head in unison, back and fourth, as if the music had somehow swallowed them. Each word was as crisp and understandable as the last accompanied by Lopez constantly using his guitar’s whammy bar and pedals for increased sound effects.
Lopez had planned to show an animated video while he sang “Persephone,” but the projector was broken. So he opted instead to sing happy birthday with the audience to hi sbassist Jeff Hidalgo, who turned 30.
Lopez gave shoutouts from the stage to John Villa, who occasionally played trumpet and performed a perfect pitch whistle solo; and Gabriel Sullivan, a fellow band member in Chicha Dust who joined in on guitar and contributed some electrifying solos.
