Concert Recap: Pecos & The Rooftops Shine Bright at Cook’s Garage

Making their headlining debut to a sold-out crowd at Cook’s Garage’s, Pecos & the Rooftops delivered an energetic set showcasing their rowdy blend of country and rock on Saturday night.

Formed in Lubbock, Pecos Hurley and his band have been touring consistently ever since their debut single, This Damn Song, blew up all across the state. Their EP Red Eye has also been racking up lots of streams across all platforms along with the promise of new music in the coming months from Hurley.

The evening began at 7:30 with Cole Barnhill & the Boys getting the music started for the night. You could really tell Barnhill enjoyed being on stage and enjoyed being back home in Lubbock. He was also very much a product of his environment dedicating one of his songs to “that b*tch Chris Beard” and egging on that one chant that starts with an F directed at UT. After him, Parker Ryan took the stage and kept the energy high and, honestly, won me over as someone who had never heard of him. On stage, Ryan is funny, confident, and gets a few points in my book because I’ll always appreciate a frontman who can rip some guitar leads and solos. His backing band was also super tight and very technically sound. Both openers also threw in covers that pleased the crowd, Barnhill covered Nirvana’s Heart Shaped Box while Ryan covered Koe Wetzel’s Crying From The Bathroom.

As Ryan left the stage, anticipation began to build and at 10:05 PM, the band hit the stage. This show was the band’s first time back in the city since performing here last October for the 2021 edition of JABFest. JABFest was also the first time I got to see the band live and…it left a bit of sour taste in my mouth. At its best, their set was a messy rock show but at its worst, you were lucky to hear Hurley sing on key. This show, however, was like night and day from that JABFest set. The band was energetic and I feel like with this being a bigger homecoming show, they truly brought their A-game. The band opened their show with Yesteryear, a steady country-rock track that was made to be played live. I don’t think I could’ve picked a better song for them to open the show with as it just about blew the roof off the place. For the next 90 minutes, the band played through all of their released material and sprinkled in some unreleased tracks along with a handful of covers. In the middle of their set, they did a medley of covers playing songs from Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and many others. They also pulled off a fantastic cover of Gary Clark Jr’s When My Train Pulls In in the middle of their song Leave Me Lonely.

And while the covers did go over well with the crowd, their own songs were still the highlights of the night. While it’s still one of their newer songs, the reaction to Last Nights Lashes would’ve made you think it’s been one of the bands biggest hits for years. Hearing it live honestly made me enjoy the song more than I did the studio version and I think the same goes for Conociste as well. I don’t know how to explain it but I feel like the studio version of Conociste is a bit too tame versus when they play it live, the drums get hit a little harder, the guitars get a little more distorted and loud, and the crowd singing along to the verse where Hurley sings about hating this ex’s Dad, dog, friends, and time they spent together also adds a little icing onto the cake. The best part of the show, in my opinion, were the closing two songs Wouldn’t Have To Miss You and of course, This Damn Song.

(Video taken by Josslin Leech as my phone had died by this point.)

Wouldn’t Have To Miss You starts off as a slow burner country song about Hurley wishing he could go back in time are restart a relationship so he wouldn’t have to miss this girl. The sing-a-long to it live is already solid enough, then around 3:15 into it, the song picks up the speed and turns into a full on rock song with a great solo at the end. And then, This Damn Song, which the whole time I’ve been writing this I’ve been trying to find out how to explain just how loud the crowd got when the opening guitar chord played but I don’t think I can. Everybody that was there knows the song and loves the song so it seemed like that collective cathartic moment for everyone where this band they loved started playing their favorite song. Of course, like most of the other songs played, the crowd sang every word back at Hurley maybe even louder than he did. It was a fantastic end to the evening and end to the show.

I think I can say with confidence that I would see the band again but me personally, I’ll still err on the side of caution. I’ve seen the band twice now, one was meh, one was amazing, so at this point I’m not sure what to expect from their live perfomances. I do have confidence that as the band continues to grow their profile and release new material, they’ll get better and more consistent live and will always be fun to see.

All photos and videos taken by me except where noted.