Tim Parsons / Tahoe Onstage
Do you like American music?
If so, check out Live at Lakeview in South Lake Tahoe on Thursday because The Sextones are headlining.
Although the band is based in Reno, it has played more shows in Europe the past couple of years than it has locally.
The band’s second European tour “exceeded our expectations,” said guitarist Mark Sexton. “The attention spans of the audiences were unbelievable. You could hear a pin drop between songs. There was a genuine curiosity about American music.”
Three of the players in the quartet have been friends since they were middle school students: Sexton, drummer Dan Weiss and bassist Alex Korostinsky. Chris Sexton plays keyboards. For the second set of the Live at Lakeview show, there will be a horn section with Julien Knowles on trumpet and Chris Gillette on saxophone.
While The Sextones don’t play a lot of local shows, the members have numerous other projects, including many that have played at The Divided Sky in Meyers as well as the beach venues around the lake.
“There are great concerts all over Lake Tahoe,” Sexton said. “The Concerts at Commons Beach (Tahoe City) and Music on the Beach in Kings Beach, but Live at Lakeview is really cool to me because the band is close to the water and the audience looks out at the lake and see a Tahoe sunset while they’re watching the band.”
The Sextones are a seriously talented band that has a bent for humorous videos. The sound touches upon R&B, soul, jazz and funk.
On Thursday, The Sextones mostly will play songs planned for their next album. It will be a followup to 2017’s “Moonlight Vision.”
“It’s more focused on being a soul album,” Sexton said. “It’s got some politically charged songs, some love songs, It’s taken what we do and further defined it and refined it to what our true trademark is.
“I think the goal of a musician is to write songs that you would want to listen to, This batch of songs I feel like I could put them on in my car and I would listen to these songs if I wasn’t playing them.”
A North Lake Tahoe band, Chile Verde, will open at 4:30 p.m. and promises to serves up a “funky stew sure to light your pants on fire.” So be careful.
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