Saints – almost every one of them.

When you get a look at the instrumental lineup for Lucas K and the Cool Hand Saints, your mind might not automatically jump to awesome funk rock. And that’s understandable, because while Luke Fischer and his beatified brethren play your typical lead guitar, bass, and drums, they also come to the stage with an accordion and a violin. At first glance that doesn’t seem very funktastic, but what you need to know is that the violin is electric and Olaf Lind is going to rock your face off with it. Lucas K and the CHS play a bunch of rock classics, like All Along the Watchtower and Jane Says, but they refract each song through a prism of reggae and blues before it hits your ears, making it seem like they wrote each one themselves. And that accordion I mentioned earlier is essential to providing the rich, reggae-fied backbeats that sell these numbers, so put all thoughts of Urkel out of your head. Luke and the Paul Newman movie-referencing crew also play a number of original songs that lean more toward straightforward blues and harder rock if that’s your thing, but really if the words “electric violin” and “prism of reggae and blues” don’t have you pumped to get out there and see Lucas K and the Cool Hand Saints, there’s something horribly wrong with you. So you should get that checked out.

Lucas K & the Cool Hand Saints • March 26, 2011 • James Sheeley House, 236 W River St., Chippewa Falls • 9pm • ages 21+ • 726-0561 • JamesSheeleyHouse.com