Twenty years of Lucid's ebb, flow on the Adirondack Coast

May 16—PLATTSBURGH — Lucid marks its 20th anniversary jamming, and the momentous celebration will be held Saturday evening at the historic Strand Theater, 25 Brinkerhoff St., in downtown Plattsburgh.

Doors to the all-ages-show opens at 6 p.m., and tickets ($27) can be purchased at the door, Box Office or at strandcenter.org.

The band's roster is Jamie Armstrong (saxophone), Andrew Deller (keys), Kevin Sabourin (guitar/vocals), Chris Shacklett (bass), Ryan Trumbull (drums) and Lowell Wurster (percussion/harmonica/vocals).

The blues-funk-hip-hop-jazz-reggae-rock'n'roll fusionists' special guests include Meadow Eliz, Catie Wurster, George Wurster and Benn Herb. Opener is When Pigs Fly.

For the R-U-Lucid experienced and for neophytes, Saturday's concert is another revolution, another milestone, summoning live-music lovers and co-creationists — family, friends and community — to twist another sonic strand, another memory, and illuminate the powerhouse band's musicscape between the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain and beyond.

From the start, Lucid had no great expectations, just to create, do and venture —The Strand, The Monopole, 20 Main, Waterhole, Pondfest, Steinhoff's Sportsman Inn aboard artist Gabriel Leavitt adorned Lucy I, Lucy II, and Nameless Purple Bus tours throughout the Northeast to Miami.

True to thine, Lucid continues to create, do and venture whenever they feel the need like now when they return scratching a 20-year itch with their discography of classics — "Miles Deep" (2005), "Dewdmanwah" (2009), "Home Is Where We Wanna Grow" (2013), "Dirt" (2015) and "Bonsai Zen" (2016) — new songs, and new merch — posters, T-shirts, hoodies designed by Rochester-based Sadie May's Art & Design — and contemplating retronouveau ideas like going vinyl.

Lucid's 20th Anniversary Celebration is an alpha-omega swoop channeling its seminal Year of the Monkey vibrations into the pulse of the Year of the Wood Dragon. Full circle.

LUCID REFLECTIONS

Lowell Wurster

"For me, this show is a celebration of community and love. We have received so much love from our community, and this show is a celebration of that. Its means a lot to have my dad's band, When Pigs Fly, a reincarnation of his band, the Blind Pig Blues Band. In years past, my father has lost a couple of his original members, so the only original members left are him and his drummer Pat Maddix. Now joining him is Mike Dashnaw of The Shameless Strangers and Doomfk on guitar, and Andy Deller, myself and Chris Shacklett of Lucid. Our fans have seen my dad sit in with us over the years, but have never seen him perform a whole set. So, they are in for a treat. For me, I'm so humbled to be able to share the stage with my father. It really means the world to me."

Kevin Sabourin

"Twenty years ago, we were all sort of swimming in the same pool here. We found each other, and we started making music together and we sort of haven't stopped since. We started playing for tips out of a beer mug, you know, getting $40, and working our way up to gracing some pretty big stages throughout the Northeast and going on some long tours. But the essence of what we've really always been doing has been about creativity, and, you know, bringing creativity and artwork kind of out into the public, both from music and through our buses and the artwork that we've had on that. We traveled all over on school buses. We made, essentially, moving public art that was covering these buses. We would be riding down the road, and there would be little kids looking out of the car windows as they passed or we would roll into a town and people would say, 'What are you?'

So, we did that for quite a long time. We've gone so many different places and met so many different kinds of people and received just incredible hospitality when you think about it. We would drive out into the night, essentially, not knowing where we were going to stay, where we were going to go, what exactly we were going to do, but we knew we were going to make music at this time and at this place. and the number of people that opened their homes to us made us feel welcomed and kind of interested in continuing on was amazing.

As time progressed, it kind of became apparent that whatever this was, whether big, small, medium, whatever this is, that it was meaning something to other people. It took a minute to like go like 'Wow, really?'

The number of times I had people reach out to me and tell me different stories and how the music affected them. I hear people who met and got married at the show, people who brought their kids to their first concert after having a baby. Their parents saw us, they had a baby, and now they're bringing a child to the first concert wearing ear plugs and everything. Now, it's kind of becoming multi-generational. It's kind of what this show at the Strand is about in a way. We have When Pigs Fly, which is Lowell's dad who I grew up watching him play and later on I did get to play with him in his blues band. Later on, then he was onstage with us. George has been doing it for pretty much 50 years himself. So amongst our two groups, we are spanning 70 years of some sort of performance time combined and combined with our audience that seemingly keeps showing up and new ones that keep discovering, even though we are not actively playing as a group that much. We reach out as individuals representing art and creativity in our own ways.

So now when Lucid comes together, it feels like we are going out to make a statement to represent, something, to represent working together, to represent staying together, to represent community, family, creativity, determination, all of those things. Because keeping any relationships going for 20 years is a success, and so to have six of us that have been able to maintain and work together as a group, to manage each other as individuals, and then to let others see that as well.

At this point as musicians in a way, I feel like we're almost even old-fashioned. Antiquated. We play instruments. We sit in a circle. We play music, and we sing songs together. I think it's important that people see that and that people see that you can go out and see whatever your definition of success is, you can go out and have success doing your own thing whatever it is being you, being best at being you, for yourself.

Because we didn't go out as a cover band or anything like that. We went out as trying to make original creations that represent our time and our place, where we are here and where we live, using music as the bigger tool of bringing community together and being a place of dialogue, a place where people can come and be who or what they want to be.

Lucid to me is an awareness, you know, but it also an ebb and flow, a coming and going, neither here nor there. I would say almost like a focused unfocused, you know, but it coalesces seemingly, occasionally, now. And, it's different than it was. When it comes together, it comes together when it's ready to come together. So, it is like a state of mind. Lucid. Clarity. Awareness. Just like that it comes and goes. It drifts.

I think that Lucid represents the human, the ebb and the flow of what it is to be alive. With all that comes the good, the bad and the whatever. Throughout, we have stood onstage and lived our lives in a way out there for people to watch and witness through the great times and through bad times. Whatever it may be.

Whether you're smiling onstage or shedding a tear, one or the other, but we're up there doing it and people can see that we're human and realize we, you know, all of us, what it looks like to be human. So yeah, Lucid is kind of undefinable in a way."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell