Cracker founder David Lowery embraces his legacy act status ahead of local gigs

Alternative music veteran David Lowery is going to be showcasing his different talents during a pair of upcoming local shows that include a hit-filled set in the desert and a more intimate solo affair in Los Angeles.

“The solo shows are more about the narrative and the lyrics and the stories, and the full band shows are more about the full ensemble, the music, the guitar solos, the keyboard, the interplay between the instruments. Those are two different things,” said Lowery, who will be performing an acoustic solo show at The Lodge Room in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 29.

On Saturday, July 1, he’ll be plugging in and joining his bandmates for a full-on roots rock show in the high desert as his Redlands-based band Cracker headlines Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown.

“We have such a large repertoire of stuff now that we sort of cross that category of what they call a legacy act,” Lowery said of the term bestowed upon artists that achieved stardom before the year 2000, during a recent phone interview.

“And there are really great things about being a legacy act. You sort of have your own momentum,” he said.

Lowery, who fronted the influential indie-rock band Camper Van Beethoven before forming Cracker in the early ’90s with guitarist Johnny Hickman, has also established himself as a successful solo artist. He’s released several independent efforts since 2011 including “The Palace Guards” that year, 2019’s “In the Shadow of the Bull,” and his latest, “Vending Machine,” which dropped on Jan. 1, 2023.

“One of the aspects of my songwriting is attention to lyrics and sort of having an odd narrative style in my lyrics,” he explained. “And the great thing about the solo acoustic shows and the albums that I do is it’s all about that narrative style and the lyrics, which is really different from the band.”

When he heads to the desert with Cracker, it’ll be a return home for the musician since the band performs there often and recorded its seminal album, 1993’s “Kerosene Hat,” at a sound studio in Pioneertown, located just up the street from Pappy and Harriet’s.

At one point, Lowery, who grew up in nearby Redlands and still has family in the Coachella Valley, lived in a one-bedroom desert cabin near Pioneertown.

“It’s just kind of my home,” he said. “I just always loved the area.”

The album Cracker recorded there gained the band wide recognition thanks to singles like  “Low,” “Get Off This”, “Loser,” and the hidden track “”Euro-Trash Girl.”

The band has recorded nine studio albums that have produced other hit songs like “Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)” and “Get Off This,” which along with songs from  Camper Van Beethoven will make up the bulk of the Pappy and Harriet’s show.

And Lowery is looking forward to performing the songs that launched his band to legacy act status at a place that has its own rich musical history.

“I watched with delight as the venue has developed and gone from being sort of a local cowboy biker bar to being a real national tour circuit venue and it’s great to see that happen,” he said.

David Lowery (solo) and Cracker

When: 7 p.m. June 29

Where: The Lodge Room, 104 N. Ave. 56, Los Angeles.

Tickets: $25 at lodgeroomhlp.com

Also: Cracker show starts at 8 p.m. July 1 at Pappy and Harriet’s, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown. Tickets are $35 at pappyandharriets.com.