Left Lane Cruiser

Taking their influences from country blues musicians, blues rock band Left Lane Cruiser consisting of Joe Evans on slide guitar and vocals, Joe Bent on bass and Pete Dio on percussion formed in 2004. Honing their craft through a series of house parties and busking, LLC developed their style inspired by the country sounds of Northern Mississippi. Signing to Alive Records in 2007, the band released their first national album the following year with ‘Bring Yo Ass to the Table’. Promoting the album on their first European venture and subsequent shows with Black Heavy Diamonds, Robert Belfour and playing the prestigious Warped Tour, Left Lane Cruiser have perfected their live performances while winning over new fans. Going forth with their motto ‘Let your soul drive what you do’, Left Lane Cruiser play with earnest passion, sharing their greasy rock infused with raw blues distinctive sound and heaps of attitude. With blistering and brutal guitar solos and dirty rock vibes, LLC are captivating from the word go. Evans’ raspy and countrified vocals pierce straight through the heavy symptomatic drum beats through tracks such as ‘Lost My Mind’, ‘Big Momma’ and ‘Amerika’. Making use of skateboard slides and cow bells adds to the intricacies of the hillbilly sound that LLC do so well. You can’t help but find yourself stomping your feet to the rhythm and clapping along. Left Lane Cruiser are gutsy, loud and raucous whilst captivating minds and soul of all who are present.

Sunday 25th October. Oslo, Hackney. Left Lane Cruiser. It’s Hipster Ville on a Sunday night and the first of three gigs in four days.

Tonight promises to be a full on hard rocking Southern Blues wig out. And so it proves. It’s hot and sweaty inside with a packed room adding to atmosphere. The shows starts as it means to go on with amazing slide and a thumping rhythm from the bass and drums.

It’s not long before a full on mosh pits starts, stage divers and all and we could be back in the heady days of the nineties. An interesting mix in the audience, from punks, rockabilly’s, hipsters, middle aged country fans and all here to blow out some Sunday evening cobwebs.

It’s a breathless 90 minutes with cuts from across their albums and especially their latest Dirty Spliff Blues. In amongst the mayhem there’s time for Skateboard Blues which as the songs says is played on a guitar fashioned on an upside down skateboard.

What’s left of my hearing after thirty years of gig going will probably not recover but hey it’s been a helluva ride. From the balls out slide of tonight tomorrow promises more of the same instrument but slightly lower keyed with the great Sonny Landreth.

Left Lane Cruiser at the Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, November 2017.

At the start my heart dropped when I heard that their new album "Claw Machine Wizard" was a 'new sound' for the band - I was expecting a "jazz odyssey for a festival crowd" moment. Completely wrong - LLC are still my favourite live rock band of all time. They played tunes from across their whole collection - Cheyenne to Hillgrass Boogie to stuff not even recoreded yet - covers of AC-DC, The Stooges, Muddy Walters, Hound Dog Taylor...
3 of us were stripped off and mosh pitting, a handful of others getting down and dirty to the blues, all having a fantastic time. And nearly all the rest of the Hoxton crowd were a bunch of fucking planks - hardly moving to the sexiest bluesy rock they'll hear this year. They scared they were going to get sweaty beard, or spill their pint on their £100 brogues?

So Left Lane Cruiser - still my favourite live band ever. Now I can hardly walk right from 2 hours straight dancing/mosh-pitting/shaking like I'm possessed... Can't wait for them to come back to London, just hope they do it in Hackney cos the whole crowd tore the place up for them two years in a row!

Hands down the best band at last nights show at Reggie's. This is my third time seeing them and each performance is a new experience. I love watching the crowd change from minimum involvement until Left Lane Cruiser starts playing. The faces of the crowd change from blahs to smiles, awe and excitement. Everyone I meet always has a similar reaction. The things I hear from the crowd are, "these guys are on another level", "I can't believe I'm getting to listen to this talent", and of course, "SHIT, these guys are so f***ing amazing!"

Left Lane Cruiser, y'all are in my soul and I love ya!

For once the warm up bands were better than the opener. Dirty blues bands shouldn't play more rock than blues. Lead singer/guitar player of Tube Sox was incredible. LLC is definitly good, just chose to play Rock most of the night, and all of the rock songs sounded the same.

Doesn't get any better than Left Lane Cruiser. Do not ever miss this band wen they are nearby! Some of the best live music you will see out there today!