Lake Street Dive @ The Fillmore with The Suffers.
Text and images by Brianna Spause.
There was a heavy dose of soul at The Fillmore last Friday night as fans – young and old, packed the house at the sold out Lake Street Dive show.
The night started out the night with a powerhouse female performance. Seeming to flaunt a Tina Turner-esque demeanor, Kam Franklin sauntered on stage dressed in a loud sequin dress. Her soulful presence was backed by a big band of nine men, making up the 10-piece neo-soul outfit, The Suffers. The Houston band was largely led by the horn section that got the audience moving.
All warmed up, the audience eagerly anticipated the quirky mash up of classic jazz, retro soul and rock and roll that is Lake Street Dive.
Front woman Rachael Price’s signature brassy vocals electrified the stage immediately, sending grooves in ripples throughout the room. Her carefully crafted, bluesy tones go down as smooth as velvet, and are brought to life with sweet harmonic support from the band.
Leaning on their musical training, Lake Street Dive has been at work for more than a decade, producing brilliant music, both technically and sonically.
Lake Street Dive is made up of Price, Mike Olson on the trumpet and guitar, Mike Calabrese, who exhibits an infectious energy from the drum kit, and Bridget Kearney, the beating heart of the band on the upright bass. All are classically trained jazz musicians.
They played more than half of their newest album, Side Pony, released in February, which the band has been working on since they signed on with Nonesuch Records in 2015.
Their concrete musical connection on stage shone through new songs like, “I Don’t Care About You” and “Call Off Your Dogs,” while the audience sang along with classics like “Go Down Smooth” and “Bad Self Portraits.”
In the encore that the wildly applauding crowd demanded, Lake Street Dive closed out the show with a cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” giving each member of the band a solo spotlight. Calabrese took it upon himself to ‘meow’ the biggest guitar solo, as Olson chuckled and shook his head.
The band sold out the remainder of their tour on the East Coast before they head off on the European leg of tour.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 
Comments are closed.