Lake Street Dive
- Thread starter PaulyT
- Start date
bscene-buttred:
(moving this thread to the music section...)
Oops, forgot to write my mini-review. So I've been following Lake Street Dive for a while now - since the OP of this thread - and like their music very much. At least, I love their first album. Their second full-length album (there's also an EP), not so much, not that it's bad it just doesn't do much for me and IMHO the SQ is kinda bad in places. I've also seen them live once before, at an outdoor festival last summer (1+ years ago). They were good, but... just good.
So I felt I was kinda taking a chance on them with last weekend's concert, but hell it was all of $25/ticket in a smaller venue - basically a big bar with a maybe 30' wide stage, standing only. I'm really glad I did!
First, the opening act was a one-man band Suitcase Junket, a somewhat odd fellow who did this very cool throat singing thing where he'd sing a (low-ish) note, and then essentially whistle at the same time, getting the harmonics. He played guitar (with some electronic effects) and had some foot-pedal drums. His music was actually pretty good, and he had some major stones to get up there by himself in front off 500-ish people. It was cool though.
Then Lake Street Dive came on and played for a little over an hour and a half. This time, I felt they were really in their groove. It was a smaller place, lots of interaction with the audience (totally missing from the outdoor show I saw earlier where the crowd was set way back from the stage), felt a much greater connection between band and crowd. They had an interesting stage setup, with the drummer (Mike Calabrese) on the far right - right in front of us, we were basically in the second "row" for most of the show - facing towards stage center. So we were seeing him from his left side, and could watch what he was doing. Different from the normal center stage drums where you can barely see the drummer at all.
There were a number of other things I thought they improved on. They had in-ear monitors, which I think maybe helped their vocal harmonies a lot (or else just practice, who knows). At the previous concert I saw, their harmonies were noticeably off-pitch at times. Not so this time.
The dude who plays the trumpet (Mike Olson) did more on the trumpet this time, as well as guitar. I still think he needs to either practice guitar a hell of a lot more or give it up, his guitar is un-inspiring. But his trumpet is great, and I really like the sound it gives the band as a whole.
The (upright) bassist (Bridget Kearney) is FANTASTIC. She's by far the best instrumentalist of the group, IMHO. She's a lot of fun to watch, too.
But of course, Rachael Price is really the foundation of this band, she has such a fantastic voice, and was in great form for this show.
They did songs from their albums, most of which I recognized, a couple of covers - including a cool thing where they segued into Van Halen's Jump in the middle of one of their other songs (Tanqueray). I was especially pleased that one of their encores was a version of Neighbor Song (the same one as the OP above) where they gathered around a single mic at the front and sang/played together. It was very cool.
Also, the sound in this venue can sometimes be a bit loud, but it wasn't for this show. I think we were hearing the drums pretty much un-amplified, at least from where we were standing. But because it wasn't deafeningly loud, I didn't need to use my earplugs, and the SQ was quite good overall, one of the better sounding shows I've heard in this place.
Anyway, I think this band has come a long way, probably helps that they've been touring for a while now and are "hitting their groove." I definitely feel that these guys are best in a smaller venue, they're not an arena band, the setting needs to be a little smaller for their style. If you get a chance to see them, I highly recommend it!
Oops, forgot to write my mini-review. So I've been following Lake Street Dive for a while now - since the OP of this thread - and like their music very much. At least, I love their first album. Their second full-length album (there's also an EP), not so much, not that it's bad it just doesn't do much for me and IMHO the SQ is kinda bad in places. I've also seen them live once before, at an outdoor festival last summer (1+ years ago). They were good, but... just good.
So I felt I was kinda taking a chance on them with last weekend's concert, but hell it was all of $25/ticket in a smaller venue - basically a big bar with a maybe 30' wide stage, standing only. I'm really glad I did!
First, the opening act was a one-man band Suitcase Junket, a somewhat odd fellow who did this very cool throat singing thing where he'd sing a (low-ish) note, and then essentially whistle at the same time, getting the harmonics. He played guitar (with some electronic effects) and had some foot-pedal drums. His music was actually pretty good, and he had some major stones to get up there by himself in front off 500-ish people. It was cool though.
Then Lake Street Dive came on and played for a little over an hour and a half. This time, I felt they were really in their groove. It was a smaller place, lots of interaction with the audience (totally missing from the outdoor show I saw earlier where the crowd was set way back from the stage), felt a much greater connection between band and crowd. They had an interesting stage setup, with the drummer (Mike Calabrese) on the far right - right in front of us, we were basically in the second "row" for most of the show - facing towards stage center. So we were seeing him from his left side, and could watch what he was doing. Different from the normal center stage drums where you can barely see the drummer at all.
There were a number of other things I thought they improved on. They had in-ear monitors, which I think maybe helped their vocal harmonies a lot (or else just practice, who knows). At the previous concert I saw, their harmonies were noticeably off-pitch at times. Not so this time.
The dude who plays the trumpet (Mike Olson) did more on the trumpet this time, as well as guitar. I still think he needs to either practice guitar a hell of a lot more or give it up, his guitar is un-inspiring. But his trumpet is great, and I really like the sound it gives the band as a whole.
The (upright) bassist (Bridget Kearney) is FANTASTIC. She's by far the best instrumentalist of the group, IMHO. She's a lot of fun to watch, too.
But of course, Rachael Price is really the foundation of this band, she has such a fantastic voice, and was in great form for this show.
They did songs from their albums, most of which I recognized, a couple of covers - including a cool thing where they segued into Van Halen's Jump in the middle of one of their other songs (Tanqueray). I was especially pleased that one of their encores was a version of Neighbor Song (the same one as the OP above) where they gathered around a single mic at the front and sang/played together. It was very cool.
Also, the sound in this venue can sometimes be a bit loud, but it wasn't for this show. I think we were hearing the drums pretty much un-amplified, at least from where we were standing. But because it wasn't deafeningly loud, I didn't need to use my earplugs, and the SQ was quite good overall, one of the better sounding shows I've heard in this place.
Anyway, I think this band has come a long way, probably helps that they've been touring for a while now and are "hitting their groove." I definitely feel that these guys are best in a smaller venue, they're not an arena band, the setting needs to be a little smaller for their style. If you get a chance to see them, I highly recommend it!