Episode 062 - Lake Street Dive Concert Review

Join me this week for an in-depth review of Lake Street Dive's recent concert at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York. This episode covers the band's performance, setlist, and overall show experience - I'll provide personal insights into the band's musicianship, songcraft, and stage dynamics, while sharing video clips from the concert. Tune in for an engaging discussion, including a brief history of the band, and make sure to check out the featured playlist on Spotify, this week on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast!

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Rock and Roll Show Podcast. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and this week I've got another concert review for you. I went to see Lake Street Dive on their recent North American tour at the Capitol Theater in Portchester, New York, where they played a 22 song set over just about 90 minutes. And they sounded great. I'm a big fan of their hit songs and I was curious to see how the rest of their catalog played live and to see how their obvious talent for crafting songs translated to the stage. And I'll give you my honest take along with videos. So please join me for my Lake Street Dive concert review coming up right now. when I heard Lake Street Dive was coming back around through North America on their Good Together tour following their successful shows last year, I wanted to go check them out, but I wasn't sure I'd be up for a show on a weekend night between two weeks of. Business travel. However, the night before, my girlfriend Jean, who's also a big fan of the band, suggested that we get tickets last minute and just go see them. For those of you who don't know, which I didn't, Lake Street Dive was formed in the early years of the new Century up in Boston as the founding members all went to the New England Conservatory of Music. Today, three of the four founding members are still in the band. That's Rachel Price, the lead singer, Bridget Carney, the bass player, and Mike Calabrese on drums. They've since added Akie Bermiss on keyboards and vocals and more recently. James Cornelius on guitar. Overall, they've released eight studio albums since their self-finance truly independent debut album In This Episode, which was released in 2007, but it was their 2014 album. Bad Self Portraits. That was their breakthrough with the song You Go Down Smooth being the first of their songs to catch my attention, though that wasn't even the single from that album. It was played on SiriusXM's, the Spectrum Station at a time that I was a regular listener because I was in the car a lot, commuting back and forth to New York City for work. I chose the Spectrum at that time because I was in search of new music and new bands, and that paid off here. This is a really good song. You Go Down Smooth and that album got as high as number 18 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, which was their first album to chart at all, so that was pretty good. Then two albums later in 2018, the band released their next big record called Free Yourself Up, and they had the big hit single off that record. Good Kisser. That album went to number eight on the Billboard 200, the highest chart position for a Lake Street dive album to date. There are two other big songs since then have been the song Hypotheticals from their 2021 album, Obviously, and the title track to their most recent album, 2024's Good Together. Both are solid pop songs, and that got me to think that maybe I should go see this band. And they came around last year, 2024, and they headlined Madison Square Garden for the first time in September. But the timing didn't work out for me. So when they announced a show this year at the Capitol Theater in Portchester, New York, I made a note of it and as I said, Jean and I made a game time decision. To go see the show, the Day of Found aftermarket tickets at a reasonable price and off we went. Now the Cap is a great place to see a show. It opened in the 1920s as a movie palace and switched over to rock and roll concerts in the late sixties, just in time to have Janice Joplin, Frank Zappa and the Mothers and the Grateful Dead among many others roll through. But that only lasted for a few years before the town of Port Chester enacted a new noise ordinance and effectively shut the venue down, leaving it abandoned for more than 10 years. Now, there was a second attempt to make it a music venue, which also failed. At which point it became a catering hall and it remained a catering hall until 2011 when new ownership brought the cap back as a music venue. And 15 years later, it's still thriving and it's one of my favorite venues of which to see a show. Now on the night of the Lake Street dive show, we got in, got to our seats just as the opening act was wrapping up her set. So we got a drink, found our seats towards the back of the balcony. Enjoyed a little bit of people watching while the crew set up for Lake Street Dive. The crowd was mixed, men and women of all different ages, congregated in the lobby and by the bars on the main and the upper floors. It wasn't long though before the lights went down and the band came on stage and went into Good Together. The title track from their most recent album. Here's a little bit of that right off the bat. My first observation, the band has expanded for their tour. As you could see in that clip, they've added a percussionist and a three piece horn section beyond the five core band members. And that really added some great energy to the performance. It certainly filled out their sound on stage, when they were involved. Now, it should be clear to anyone who isn't familiar with Lake Street Dive that this band isn't a real rock and roll band. They're more of a jazzy pop band. They're very talented musicians and they explore all kinds of sounds and some different types of music, and as I've said before, we have room for all kinds of popular music here at the Rock and Roll Show podcast. So let's get on with the show. The second and third songs were new to me, and I'm definitely not familiar with their entire catalog, I had mixed reactions to them. There was a song called Hello, goodbye. And that one didn't really do it for me, but better not tell you from the new album was catchy and nicely featured. The horn section, which were called the Hunter Tones, and it was a great part of the show. Then came Hypotheticals from the 2021 album. Obviously it's a kind of mid tempo song that was a big hit for them, but it's mostly inventive in its wordplay. The lyrics are an interesting way of exploring the feelings that come up with a new relationship. And the title's a word that's pretty unusual in rock and roll. I could only find one other song in all of rock and roll's history with the word hypothetical in the title. And I had never heard of the band Emigrate before. Or their song from 2014 with Marilyn Manson singing lead on it. So this is a pretty unique tune, not my favorite of theirs. But having said that, the crowd loved it. Here's a bit of the middle section of hypotheticals. In that clip, you can really see the percussionist, her name is Nega Santos, putting out great energy even while just playing the tambourine Nega is from Brazil and has been playing with the Late show band, Stephen Colbert's late show since late 2017, and she was definitely a highlight of the show. All night when she was on stage. Next up after Hypotheticals was a new song called Seats at the Bar, another mid tempo number, which had a very adult contemporary kind of vibe. Now, the stage included a bar, as you've seen with a bar stool right behind the singer Rachel, and she sat in one of those stools for part of the song. I wondered if the whole reason for having the bar in the middle of the stage was for this song. It wasn't, but it was cool. Two more slow songs followed and I was getting a little antsy for a change of tempo. A change of pace when they played Baby. Don't Leave Me Alone with My Thoughts from the 2018 Free Yourself Up album, and while it was another mid tempo tune, it had more energy and it really needed that. I needed that. At least it was just in time for me. I didn't get any video of this one because I was just trying to absorb all these songs that were new to me. Another slow song followed called Lackluster Love, and to be honest. I was getting a little bored, and that's my next observation. While the band is filled with extremely talented musicians, especially Rachel Price is an absolutely powerhouse singer, I feel like they need to work on their stagecraft. The songs aren't strong enough on their own to get over one after the other slow to songs. Now, again, I'm saying this, while the crowd seemed to really enjoy them just as they were, but I don't believe that their performance, as I saw it, will ever allow them to grow their audience in any significant way. I think they need a little bit of a more dynamic show. Maybe they don't want. To grow their audience, and if not, that's fine. This is just my opinion of course, but wow, so many slow to mid tempo songs in a row and it felt like a momentum killer. Luckily, the next song was a song called Party on the Roof from the new album, and that has a really cool vibe and it was definitely a party song which helped. Here's a little bit of that one again, making good use of the horn section. At this point, 10 songs into the show. The Core five piece band gathered around the bar with acoustic instruments. AKI brought out a portable keyboard, and then they went into a cover of the Jackson Fives. I Want You Back. It was a very slowed down jazzy interpretation that they first released as part of their 2012 EP called Fun Machine. Their version shows off their talents, but I felt like it robbed the song of its energy and it's fun, at least for me. What do you think? Two more mellow songs followed, and then they brought Nega Santos in the horn section back out, and everyone went back to their places on stage for the song Call Off Your Dogs, which had a much better energy and a great horn intro. I didn't get video of that, but I found a good one elsewhere. Thanks to a guy named John Zig weed. You gonna be pushing. Don't, don't fight you. This is what I get. Die let you go. You want goodbye? If not. I love the, we. Two songs later, they tackled their second cover of the show with a keyboard player Aki taking on Shania Twain's. You're Still The One. And again, I thought they did that song a disservice in trying to be too jazzy and slow with it. Take a listen and let me know what you think. My love, oh, if it wasn't I, still the one that I'd give to goodnight, ain't nothin' man. We've been out together. Glad we didn't miss it. Because what we would be missing. After that, AKI broke into an extended piano intro that led to the Song"Twenty-Five," which is a well-written, sad song about remembering a lost love fondly after the singer had been broken up with that person for some amount of time, it's off the newest album. The lyrics are really powerful, but I had never heard this song before and I got caught up in listening, so no video here either. Now this is a good time to note that while many of the newer songs that the band records are written or at least credited to. Collectively, all five band members. The songs that I tend to like best seem to all be written solely by the bass player Bridget Kearney. She wrote 25 as well as Party on the Roof from the latest record. Baby, don't leave me alone with my thoughts. Call Off Your Dogs Hypotheticals and my favorite of all their songs. Good Kisser. We'll talk more about that a little bit, but Bridget really writes good lyrics and her musical choices are varied and interesting in ways that really hits my ears just right. And in my opinion, when you have a monster singer like Rachel Price, having good lyrics is the key to creating good songs. And I consider Good Kisser. A good song, really good song. That one hadn't come up in the set yet though. So after 25, we got another number, song title, the song 17, also written by Bridget Kearney and this song. Also looked backwards at a lover in the past, but this one's a little weirder. It was written a full 10 years earlier than the song 25, and I could tell the ideas weren't as fully realized and the songs broken up into two completely different tempos with the chorus slowing down significantly, almost as though she was. Doing an exercise to see if she could write a song That way it's fun and they use the horn section well to perk up the tune, which was not on the recorded version. They moved into dance with a stranger, which was eh, okay. Another Bridget tune from the new album. Not great, but certainly not bad, and that led into the main set closer. You Go Down Smooth. As I mentioned in the intro, this was the first song of theirs that I ever heard, and I really liked this one. It was written by their original guitar player. His name was Mike Olson, and he left the band in 2021, but I think it's got their best groove of. pretty much any song of theirs that I've heard. Here's a little bit of that one, and if you're watching, I had to move my camera around in a somewhat futile attempt to avoid the hand dancers sitting just a few rows ahead of us. That was it for the main set. And when the band came back out for their encore, they launched into their third and easily their best cover of the night Hall Oates Rich Girl. As usually happens, it shows a cover can either compliment a band's talents or expose their weaknesses. And after Lake Street Dive had missed the first two times, this one was perfect for them. Judge for yourself. Following that, they wrapped up the show with a song we'd all been waiting for Good Kisser. This one isn't a particularly up tepo song. It's not particularly complex, but the lyrics are among my favorite of any song, and the music moves from one thing to another between the verses and the choruses in a really interesting way. Take a listen to a little bit of Good Kisser. Tell all you. After that Lake Street dive was done and Jean and I were back outside and driving home, they played for just over 90 minutes, which was perfect for this band. As I said earlier, the musicianship is excellent. The songwriting is really strong. I personally would like to see more energy on stage throughout the show, maybe a little more variety in the types of songs they play, and a little more engagement with the audience. But that didn't take away from the fact that the entire sold out crowd, including Jean, loved the show. And while the band's music generally isn't my thing, I found a lot more to like here than I expected because the musicianship and songwriting ability can take a band a long way. It'll be interesting to see if they can broaden their horizons going forward, and I'm here for it when they do. If you get a chance to catch Lake Street, dive out on the road. Please do. They're playing out on a tour right now. They spend some time in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, the whole eastern half of the United States. Check out Lake Street Dive if you can. Let me know what you think if you do. And with that, that's it for this week's episode. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday, and if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it if you would like and either subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about each new episode. And please tell your friends. Also a reminder that we release a playlist for every episode. So look for the Rock and Roll Show Podcast Playlist on Spotify every week this week, featuring all 22 songs from the set list of the Lake Street Dive Show at the Capitol Theater that I saw. So check that out. Additionally, I want to know what you think, so please leave me a comment and I'll try to respond to every one of them. The Rock and Roll Show Podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and until next time, remember that life is short. So get those concert tickets.