Live Shows: Hilken Mancini Band, Cujo, and Mary Lou Lord, Sonia, 5/10/25

I've been a huge fan of Hilken Mancini, Jen Trynin, and Mary Lou Lord's for roughly thirty years now. I've seen Mancini in her various projects countless times, and even though it's been a while, I've been lucky enough to watch Lord perform a number of times. Somehow I've never seen Trynin, but for the album release for Hilken Mancini Band's excellent self-titled album all three were playing, so I obviously needed to go. It just took a little extra time after the original November date was rescheduled. 

First up was Mary Lou Lord with a short five or six song set. It was a delight to see her perform after all these years, and she still sounds amazing. One personal highlight was a cover of Lucinda Williams' "Metal Firecracker," which I've always loved. She brought out her daughter, Annabelle Lord-Patey, for a few songs, and even had her sing her new unreleased single. It was stellar (and if you're reading this, be sure to send it to us once it's ready!) Lord closed with her first new song in roughly fourteen years about hearing your friends playing on the radio or another platform all of these years later. Damn, have I missed seeing Mary Lou Lord play music.

Cujo was next, and are Jen Trynin's new (?) band. I've never seen her live, but I can't imagine she's lost a step since the 90's. Her overall stage presence was absolutely firey, and I was completely blown away. She was such a commanding performer that I have no idea how she isn't one of the biggest stars to come out of that decade. As great as Cujo's songs were, as soon as she broke out "Better Than Nothing," the crowd erupted and people moved to the front to start dancing. Cujo might not be the easiest band to Google, but definitely check them out.

Closing out the night was Hilken Mancini Band, and they were well worth the six month wait. The album was one of my favorites of 2024, and live was an entirely different beast. They also brought out a ton of guest stars, including Thalia Zedek for two songs (including "Ghost"), Chris Brokaw filled in for J Mascis on a song, Chris Colburn of Buffalo Tom and Mary Lou Lord guested on a Go Betweens cover, and an eleven year old fan named Evan played a guitar solo on a song. They even broke out Fuzzy's "Flashlight" for all of us old timers in the crowd, which was the vast majority. Of course, the highlight of the night was the all-star finale which featured virtually of the guests and members of the other bands (plus Magen Tracey) joining forces for a cover of The Runaways iconic anthem "Cherry Bomb." Let's not wait another six months to do this again.