This Denver Band Is Taking Its "Tastefully Aggressive" Music to the Road

Lucked Out ain’t no joke.

The Mile High hardcore five-piece made its public debut last year on April 1, armed with only a handful of originals but more than enough attitude to show it was serious about making a mark on the local DIY scene. And since then, it has.

Just in the past year, Lucked Out released a demo (The ’23 Demo), played nearly thirty shows in and around Denver, went on a short Texas run and, on July 4, dropped a debut EP, BOTTOMFEEDER. “We just tried to hit the local scene as hard as we could,” says the band's vocalist, Jerry Nedrow.

Lucked Out might be newer to the scene, but the members are DIY lifers. Nedrow, who is originally from Long Island, has been in bands his “whole life,” he says, and leans on his background of booking shows to find places to play. Guitarist Matt Lopez, who moved out here in 2019 and met Nedrow at an Obituary show in Colorado Springs in 2022, shares a similar musical background from his days growing up in Virginia Beach. Lopez recruited a military buddy, Alex McCann, for his guitar chops. Then he found local drummer Patrick Carney before rounding out the lineup with bassist Zac Cavaness after spotting him at the gym wearing a Knocked Loose T-shirt.

“I was like, ‘Sick shirt. Do you play bass?’” Lopez recalls with a laugh.
With the core complete, Lucked Out didn’t waste any time getting to work writing and releasing singles, building an online following and landing on local lineups with nothing but know-how and sweat equity. At this point, the members aren’t even interested in signing with a label and receiving such support.

“We understand the scene and what goes on. We feel like we’re at the age where there’s not much more a record label can do for us that we can’t already do for ourselves,” Nedrow explains. “We've never pressed that issue; it’s been pretty DIY for us. We do everything from finding our own designers for merch to printing our own CDs.”

“There’s no other way, really,” Cavaness adds while giving props to Nedrow for his focus on booking the shows and handling the band’s social media presence, which has amassed nearly 11,000 followers on Instagram.

“A label isn’t going to pick up a band unless they’re already doing 90 percent of what needs to be done anyway. Then they’ll be like, ‘Here’s a couple hundred bucks, go make an album,’” he continues.

And Lucked Out is already doing that, too. Now with the EP out, the band is preparing for its first West Coast swing, which it booked entirely on its own and includes shows in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. The tour kicks off with a pair of EP-release shows — on Tuesday, July 23, at D3 Arts in Denver, and Wednesday, July 24, at Vultures in Colorado Springs.
Before the group first played out, Lopez already had a few songs — “Burning Season” and “Ilybfu” — in the hopper, but they were ripe for a refresh. The updated versions appeared on the demo along with a pair of new tracks. But that served more as a taste of things to come. BOTTOMFEEDER is a more proper offering.

“That EP is a lot of progression in our band, as far as us playing with each other throughout the last year and evolving more as musicians within ourselves, too,” Carney says, adding that he models his drumming after bands such as As I Lay Dying and I Killed the Prom Queen.

Cavaness agrees. “Yeah, the last year, you can see the progression and the different influences that each member brings to the table,” he says while sharing that Hatebreed is one of his go-to inspirations (Lucked Out once played a Hatebreed cover set).

With its members each adding their own flavor to the mix, whether it’s Carney’s metalcore-inspired drum fills or McCann’s thrashy lead licks, Lucked Out is unlike any local hardcore band, and probably the only one quoting Fight Club.

BOTTOMFEEDER leads off with this Tyler Durden bit: “Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals. We haul your trash. We connect your calls. We drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us.”

The intro is aptly titled “DNFWU” and is as much a mission statement as it is a beatdown. The EP follows suit, saying everything it needs to in five songs that clock in at just under twelve minutes total. It’s a barrage led by Nedrow’s sharp vocal delivery. He’s pissed, and he wants everyone to know it. On “BEYOND FORGIVENESS,” which McCann penned, he barks about a backstabber and how he’s happy to watch them “beg for life at the end of the fucking rope.”

Then there are McCann and Lopez’s dual guitars, which stand out in their own right. From breakdowns to dive bombs (McCann’s little ode to late guitar hero Dimebag Darrell), the duo plays off each other seamlessly. Even “IF I FAIL (Colin’s song),” a short instrumental interlude that highlights the guitars, packs a punch. There's some cowbell here, too, most notably on “CASTING STONES.”

“I feel like I be hitting the bell, like, all the time,” Carney says.

But it works. And that’s all that matters.

The title track, which is the longest song at just under four minutes and features California's Mugshot, is an auditory exclamation point. The accompanying music video, edited by Carney, shows Lucked Out doing what it does best: throwing down in a graffiti-covered back alley.

Call it slam. Call it beatdown. Call it metallic hardcore. “BOTTOMFEEDER” even landed on a deathcore label post. No matter what it’s called, Lucked Out makes music “for moshers, by moshers,” according to Lopez.

“To me, we’re rooted in hardcore, but we branch out to all the ’cores. I just use the moniker of 'aggressive music.' That’s a perfect way to describe us. It’s tastefully aggressive. There’s a lot of style,” he explains.

“I love moshing. I like the violent aspect of it, granted that it’s controlled,” he continues. “I want to write something that’s going to make me go absolutely feral. I think Alex and I have a really good understanding of our buildups and tension and release points, too.”

Even in such a short amount of time, Lucked Out is laying out a blueprint for what Denver hardcore can sound and look like. Nedrow credits the local scene for the band’s quick rise to the forefront.

“I think the scene in Denver post-pandemic is ten times better than it was before the pandemic,” he says. “There are so many new kids coming out, so many new bands. I feel like there’s a new band popping up every week that I haven’t heard about.

“It’s crazy times right now, so having an outlet through music is a special thing,” he continues, adding that it helps to have a stream of seemingly “never-ending shows” to check out. “It never stops, dude. There are some weeks I’ll go to like five or six shows a week. Sometimes in the Springs, I’ll go to the Black Sheep, then run next door to Vultures to catch another band.”

And whenever it’s Lucked Out’s turn to take the stage, hardcore heads should make it a point to be there, and be ready for “thirty minutes of high energy,” as Nedrow puts it.

“All the energy that I saved up all week goes into that thirty minutes,” he says.

Lopez, the catalyst behind it all, smirks. He likes that Lucked Out is building a reputation for being one of the heaviest-hitting bands out there. The way he sees it, everyone is in it together, and there’s no better way to support what’s going on than by checking out a local show.

“It’s a very genuine experience if they’re looking to go to a hardcore show. I think everybody in this band embodies what hardcore is,” he concludes. “It’s a fun overall experience. The riffs are heavy. People just have fun, and the shows are scary.”

No joke.

Lucked Out, with Poolside at the Flamingo, Wolfblitzer and more, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, D3 Arts, 3632 Morrison Road, $12 cash at the door; 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 24, Vultures, 2100 East Platte Avenue, Colorado Springs, $12.