Brooklyn-based Lake Street Dive is on tour in support of their latest release, Side Pony. They swung by Portland, Oregon’s Crystal Ballroom on March 2nd to deliver their breezy, soulful sounds to a sold-out crowd.
Before Lake Street Dive took the stage, the audience at the Crystal Ballroom was given a proper warm up. Their name is The Suffers and they’re from Houston. Those are the two things lead singer Kam Franklin asked the crowd to remember from their performance. What the crowd likely also remembers is a powerful 10-piece ensemble that delivered their “Gulf Coast Soul” sound with enthusiasm and heart.
Franklin explained that just a year and a half earlier, everyone in the band had day jobs and collectively made a leap of faith to hit the road as a touring group. She showed great appreciation for finding herself and the band garnering cheers in the 1500-capacity venue. Her story, as well as The Suffers performance, was an inspiring testimony to the power of following your dreams.
The rising roar of the crowd when Lake Street Dive hit the stage was a reflection of their rising popularity in the indie-pop music scene. The all-ages side of the venue was full of fresh young faces ready to lay their ears on the catchy songs and instrumental sensibilities of the band, as well as swoon over lead singer Rachael Price and her sassy yet soulful vocal delivery.
Price (lead vocals), Mike “McDuck” Olson (trumpet, guitar), Bridget Kearney (upright bass), and Mike Calabrese (drums) formed their musical alliance while studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. They found common ground musically and forged ahead as a band. Paying homage to the soul music of decades past, mixing in Motown and Doo-Wop and keeping one foot in their jazz discipline, Lake Street Dive is enjoying the same type of “back to the future” appreciation of mid-century popular music that Leon Bridges is drawing from.
Their set included tracks off of their new release as well as previous albums, and songs like “You Go Down Smooth” and “Bad Self Portraits,” from 2014 album Bad Self Portraits got the crowd singing along. The foursome also tackled a cover of Annie Lennox’s “Walking On Broken Glass,” and encored with Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” While perhaps not the most exotic of covers, the song gave Lake Street Dive one last opportunity to show their range, and make sure everybody in the Crystal Ballroom was singing along.
The name of the new album is Side Pony. The term, in addition to describing a hairstyle, is also slang for “unexpectedly diverting the mind’s attention.” This band seems to have a knack for that. They have sass and soul, and at one moment, you might be wondering what exactly it is they are up to, and the next you are caught up in the swaying warmth of Price’s voice and the band’s energetic arrangements.
