It felt more like a sauna than a bar.
The Hard Lessons made a triumphant return to Lansing with a standing room-only performance at Mac's Bar, 2700 E. Michigan Ave. on Friday night.
"I felt spoiled like a little baby," said singer/organist Korin Louise (Ko Ko Louise) Cox. "All of our friends came out, and our fans came out early."
The three-piece band played a mix of revamped older numbers and a couple of new ones. The group even threw in a version of Neil Young's "My My, Hey Hey," boasting "rock 'n' roll can never die."
Overall, it was a hard-hitting garage rock show with a polished flare.
"It was the unveiling of the new songs and their current state," said drummer Christophe (The Anvil) Zajac-Denek.
"Our stuff tends to evolve and we change some things and keep other things the same and then the next time you see us, those things we have kept the same may have changed again."
The only thing The Hard Lessons, whose members met at MSU, has kept constant is a high level of energy.
Singer/guitarist Agostino (Gin) Visoucchi bounced around the stage like a frog on a sugar fix. He pulled off the Pete Townsend windmill strum and belted out lyrics with fierce enthusiasm.
With a poster of the Rat Pack behind her, Cox sang in a style reminiscent of the passion of Janis Joplin's vocals while wildly tapping on the organ keys.
And Zajac-Denek played checkers on his compact drum set, securing the backbone of the tunes Friday night.
The group listed a wide variety of influence for the evolving sound.
"I listened to a lot of Dolly Parton growing up, and I listen to Patsy Cline and also listened to Motown Records and barbershop quartets — old men singing in four-part harmony," Cox said.
The drummer said he's been listening to The Raconteurs (Jack White and Brendan Brenson's band) along with a lot of Detroit bands — The Sights, Thunderbirds Are Now! — and The Constantines.
The Hard Lessons have big plans for the future.
A new EP is coming out in March with five new songs, and the trio is set to do a couple weeks of touring out east and in the Midwest.
"In March we'll be leaving to do some more recording down at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tenn. — that's going to be a great experience — and then we'll also be doing South by Southwest (a music festival in Austin, Texas)," Zajac-Denek said.
After all that, the band will be going on a nearly five week stint out west looking to expand their already vast fan base.
"We've got high school kids, we've got mom and pops, we got grandparents, we got college kids —I think we're unique in our ability to reach a pretty broad audience," Cox said.
"We look to keep spreading the gossip of rock 'n' roll music."
