We’re about to embark on the road with our favorite funk powerhouse, Lettuce, hitting cities all over the US – from Austin to Nashville to NYC and many in between! Throughout the tour, the boys will be sharing their tales from the road, showing us how to Live for Live Lettuce. Keep up with their journey right here (updated daily), and be sure to catch Lettuce when they hit your city!

Tour dates and more info can be seen here.

First Stop: Austin City Limits

10/6/2014, 10:30 PM, New Orleans

Adam Deitch: So we just played ACL, it was our first gig in about a month. We had a blast, there were so many people and ACL really took care of us – shoutout to everyone who was there, it looked to be about 20,000 people. We had a really great time and just overnight traveled to New Orleans for our day off, we ate some good food and then we went into the studio, and now we’re recording ideas for the new album. It’s coming out great and now we have the whole Live for Live Music crew, and the Lettuce crew, and a camera crew, and everything is happening according to plan!


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Tea, Smoothies and Showers: The Essentials

 

10/7/2014, 4:20 PM, Oxford, MS

Shmeeans: We fought in HD for a little bit last night [for L4LM’s Lettuce tour movie being filmed], but that’s our writing process at times. It’s been like that for years, and it’s why we’re best friends, you know you’re gonna work it out. Today we’re having a tea ceremony after last night’s rehearsal practice – we stayed up late on the bus because we were excited, and now we’re trying to be healthy.

Zoidis: I made some epic smoothies this morning with avocado, banana, ice, all these insane superfruit powders, all these living essentials, vitamins, vanilla bean, protein powder, and all these really nice super healthy things. And then we had high brain octane MCT bulletproof oil coffee. And then, we came over to this house and Shmeeans started professionally brewing pu-erh tea and we’ve been drinking that for about an hour and a half.

Shmeeans: It’s not really a traditional tea ceremony. We’ve been honored to have a really good tea specialist, Kelly from Infinitea, teach us the ways.

Jesus: I think pu-erh tea comes from the oldest golden tea trees in China, the tea has really nice properties that lower your cholesterol and stop production of…something. I personally just love the tea taste!

L4LM: So I’m sure that’s getting you all ready for tonight!

Jesus: As soon as I take a shower I’ll really be ready.

Zoidis: Jesus has been on shower strike since the beginning of the tour.

L4LM: So what are your showers like? Who showers the most and least out of you guys?

Shmeeans: We all take really quick showers.

Jesus: Neal is top, I’m second tier but currently on shower strike. But I shower the longest.

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M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

10/8/2014, 10:15 PM, Oxford, MS (Tour Bus)

Shmeeans: Well, we did it. Mississippi, M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. We came, we saw, we raged. And we had a great show, we played a brand new song for the very first time tonight, never ever done before, can’t ever be the first time again. Only one first time baby.

Jesus: I feel like I just got off stage at Bonnaroo over here in Oxford. A lot of Ole Misses chillen. 

Shmeeans: AND, we got hats now, motherf*cker! Performance gear!

Bloom: Playing with Deitch is a scary thing if you are a shitty musician. Or an average one, or any level really.

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New City, New Songs

10/8/2014, 11:15 PM, Tuscaloosa, AL

Deitch: Tonight in Tuscaloosa was off the chain. We added a new song that we’re calling for now “The Big Anthem,” and it felt really big and powerful for the first time, we’re really excited to have added that. And then we played another song that Shmeeans and I wrote in Harlem entitled “Chief,” played that again and it was even better tonight. The new songs are infusing a lot of energy into our sets, and when we’re excited you know the crowd’s gonna be excited, so we feel like they got it tonight. We wanna send a shoutout to Tuscaloosa for raging so hard at 10 o’clock, we loved it. It’s a blast. Now we just chill and think about what’s the new song for tomorrow.

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Living for Live Music

10/9/2014, 9:15 PM, Baton Rouge, LA

Neal: We’re raging here in Baton Rouge. Live for Live Music, that’s what we’re doing out here, and we’re having a great time. The coolest thing about tonight is if you’re in Baton Rouge tonight and you witness this show with Lettuce and Gramatik at The Varsity, we are dropping brand new music that’s never been heard, and I think people are gonna bug out cause we’re bugging out. We’re having such a great time and this is only day three. This is gonna be an incredible tour. Our goal is to push ourselves every single day to play some new material. Live for Live Music – that’s what’s up.

Bloom: We’re in Baton Rouge so this is a first for us. The new songs keep evolving every day on tour. A lot of friends came out from New Orleans and I have a great feeling about tonight. Lettuce crush!

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Music Land USA

10/10/2014, 6:30 PM, Dallas, TX

L4LM: So what have you guys been up to in Dallas?

Jesus: In our own world. Music land USA. Kraz just got here, we’re gonna go play the new songs with him at soundcheck. 

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Keep Austin Funky

 

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10/11/2014, 8:15 PM, Austin, TX

Krasno: Austin is a historic town, we’ve always had amazing shows here, a lot of amazing musicians have come from here so it’s an important place for us. The last show we had here was great, so there’s a little bit of pressure now to beat that but I think we will because we have a lot of new music we’re gonna play and a lot of people will hear some new stuff. It’s always fun to play new stuff super fresh, it’s way fresh for me because I didn’t play it till today pretty much.

L4LM: Did that take a while to get down?

Krasno: Yesterday I just heard it and then played it and sort of got familiar with it, and then tonight I have a grasp of it and am coming up with more creative parts to fit within the arrangement, and it gets us psyched cause it’s brand new.

L4LM: Awesome, the new stuff has been crushing and we’re excited to have you back. So what else have you been up to in Austin?

Krasno: Went to Torchy’s Tacos, which was amazing. Excited to see the actual festival tomorrow and spend some time walking around, absorbing a little bit of the Austin vibe and culture and whatnot. Soulive did the first ACL ever, and then we did the third or something, so we did it a few times in the beginning. Must have been 10 years ago or longer. I remember that one really well because the Polyphonic Spree played before us and had a hundred people on stage, it was crazy. And St. Vincent who I’m a huge fan of was in Polyphonic Spree at the time. So I remembered that a few years ago when I saw her and had been listening to her and was like wait, I know I’ve seen her before! I remember them coming off stage cause we were three people, and they had like 100. But that was a good experience. And the other time we played we played with G Love, it was raging. [Deitch enters bus] Deitch, you know anything about Austin?

Deitch: Austin — we’re excited it’s sold out, and it’s going to be a heck of a show. 

Krasno: Here’s a little quiz: which one of my favorite musicians of all time is from Austin?

Deitch: Stevie Ray Vaughan, he’s one of Kraz’s big guitar player heroes.

Krasno: Every time I’ve ever been to Austin I hear somebody amazing that blows my mind. If I actually have a moment to venture out into the city, like on 6th Street — it’s funny cause it’s kind of the way Bourbon Street is a little bit where you’ll have blues bands playing classic Texas blues, but last time I came across this dude who was one of the best guitar players I’ve ever heard, he was just playing this bar, his name was Allen something. And also this guy we saw once ended up opening up for us a bunch of times, his name was DMadness and he was this blind guy who played every instrument. He had this rig where he played drums, had a bass right here, and would play drums, bass and keyboard at the same time.

Deitch: That’s Kraz’s dream. Everybody’s fired. Yeah I was here a week ago and I went outside and I heard this drummer playing his ass off, groovy, playing some Dilla and classic hip hop tunes, and I went and met him, turned out he was a huge fan, I invited him to the show and he came out. It was awesome.

Check out Adam Deitch’s Top 10 Most Exciting Drummers! 

10/11/2014, 10:15 PM, Austin, TX

Deitch: I just want everyone to know that we are very excited to have Cochemea Gastelum, aka Cheme, who is one of the greatest saxophonists of all time. He is a regular, full-time member of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and also has done time in various Daptone projects, he’s played with Antibalas, the kings of afrobeat. It’s just an honor to have him and his beautiful, robust tenor sound. And side note: he’s engaged to our singer, Alecia Chakour! So it’s a real family atmosphere here.

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ACL: Full Rage Mode

10/14/2014, 4:15 PM, Austin, TX (en route to Jackson, MS)

Shmeeans: ACL was so unreal. The energy from the crowd gave us so much and took us to new heights. 

Jesus: We’re just raging our faces off on the bus. I just woke up a couple of hours ago, it was pretty raging. Loved ACL, did the C3 afterparty. The show was so fun, just to play on that stage alonside that size of well-known artists and to be able to represent ourself as a band that’s together and more of a real band than it’s ever been, I just feel like we’re doing the right thing. It felt really good to play our music, the way we wanted it to be heard. Live for live music all day every day, bro!

L4LM: So do any of you want to tell us a little about the Ringo Starr show last night?

Jesus: Yeah, Zoidis will. Oh wait, he’s going to go get fried pies. After all that health talk yesterday, he literally just made the bus stop to get FRIED PIES. Motherfucker.

L4LM: Ha! Well Shmeeans, what were your favorite parts?

Shmeeans: Hmmm. “I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Africa” — those were my top 3.

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Atlanta: Hand Injuries and Haunted Theatres

10/15/2014, 9:40 PM, Atlanta, GA

Deitch: So yesterday was special. We have a trap door on our bus, there’s been a handle missing the entire time. 2 days ago our friend Craig who does our merch slammed his hand in the door, and we were like wow, those are some ugly gashes you have on your hand, let’s all be extra careful. So I was supposed to be extra careful and I wasn’t, and I slammed my hand in the door. It sliced three of my fingers about an inch long, my thumb is bruised really badly. This happened an hour before yesterday’s show and I had to play anyway. Tequilla – I mean, Advil – got me through it. So tonight I have to do it again, and I am going to acquire a bunch of new blisters on my hand because I have to play in a different way than I normally do. But it will still be funky and the guys will hold it down, and my left hand, which is my strong hand, my snare drum hand, is just fine. I guess my mom’s gonna find out now.

I just want to add that tonight we have my friend Fred Vigdor here who is an amazing saxophonist, he recommended me for the Average White Band, which was my first touring gig ever. We went to Scotland and England and all over the country, and it was a great experience for me. He taught me a lot about being professional and showing up on time. 

Fred: You seem to have forgotten it all!

Deitch: Hey, I haven’t missed a flight ever! I’m very proud of that part of my career. Fred was a huge part of my developing as a human being and a musician, and it’s great to have him here.

Fred: Adam came down and auditioned for us, I think it was 1999, he was 23. He did not get the gig, they gave it to somebody else. That guy lasted 6 months, and as soon as they let him go, I called up Deitch and said, “it’s yours to lose!”, so he came in and nailed it at 23. He was by far the youngest guy in the band. He’s just a walking encyclopedia of R & B and drums. Once he was in the band they loved him, other than the fact that I had to babysit him all the time. Make sure he had his ticket, and had his shoes tied, and didn’t lose his watch and all that stuff. I think he’s grown up and now has to herd all these [Lettuce] cats. 

 

Shmeeans: This theater is haunted. I felt the spirits in there, they let me know they were there. If you research it they’ll tell you, this place is known for when you’re around in the dark in the theater and no one’s there, ghosts are walking around, things happen. 

Fred: More than one ghost?

Shmeeans: More than one ghost. Plural.

L4LM: Do they have personalities?

Shmeeans: I have no idea, I just got here. All I’m saying is I went to use the bathroom downstairs alone, there was no one there, the lights turn on by themselves…

[Loud thump] 

Shmeeans: Yo! See! Right there!!! 

[Neal emerges slowly from bathroom, laughter ensues] 

— 

L4LM: So how is it being back with the guys?

Alecia: Always good. They’re fam, so it’s easy. Just like going back to your mom’s house. The tour is going well, everyone’s in great spirits, which always makes things better when we’re in tight quarters. It’s been really cool, and they’re just super motivated right now to keep writing and pushing.

L4LM: We just found out you’re engaged to Cheme! Congrats! 

Alecia: Yeah! Neal is actually the one who introduced us, we met at a Lettuce rehearsal years ago. We were both sitting in. But yeah, it’s good to kidnap him before he goes out on the road [with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings].

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He’ll Be Coming Home For Christmas

10/16/2014, 8:45 PM, Nashville, TN

L4LM: So what’s it like seeing your dad again?

Jesus: It’s great to see my father always. He was in California like a month ago and we had lunch, but it’s always great to see Tommy.

Tommy Coomes: We don’t get to see Jesus enough. He doesn’t answer on the first call.

Jesus: Once my phone battery dies I just say, that’s it. It’s not meant to be for awhile.

Tommy: Well Jesus loves Christmas, so he’ll be coming home for Christmas.

Jesus: My holy father! But yeah, it’s fun, it’s good to play music in front of him too cause he’s an incredible, world-renowned musician, songwriter and producer.

Tommy: Being at rehearsal today was really fun, I sort of got goosebumps because they’re working up a brand new song, there’s no charts, Neal and Alecia had come up with the idea and Neal knew exactly what he wanted, he was really animated. These guys are all so good, and you can see the respect, everyone’s gift is so strong and you can tell it’s really a joy for them to make this kind of music and make stuff up and have something new that’s exciting to play.

Jesus: It was actually a really old song by Bobby Gentry, it’s something that Alecia really loves and I wasn’t familiar with it. We’ve been looking for a new song to play with Alecia cause we only have a certain number of songs worked out with her so we want to work out a couple new things and find what she’s really into, so she’s really into Bobby Gentry, so we just funked it out a little, Neal had an arrangement idea in his head. We’re gonna play it tonight. I love it that these guys are all so good at what they do that they’ll just think of an idea that day and say we’re gonna do this tonight, in front of all these people who paid all this money to come see us, the pressure’s fully on, and we’re gonna do something we’ve never even thought of trying until right now, and we’re all gonna learn it and do it. And when you do something like that, when you actually pull it off on stage, the feeling that you get from that is just so good, it’s like wow. My dad has a 14 piece band too that they used to joke around and say we’re gonna get shirts that say Stunt Man, cause when you work with the church or any big production like the Grammys, sometimes the higher-ups don’t realize what they’re really throwing at you when they say “learn these five new songs, like, an hour from now. You’re professionals, right? Learn all this stuff and know it inside and out.”

Tommy: Tommy Coomes Band is some of the finest singers, two of them have done all the Michael Jackson stuff, the Color Purple, they did all of Quincy’s stuff, sang with Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder albums. There’s one song we’ve done called “My Hope” that we’ve done in literally 20 different languages.

L4LM: So what’s the philosophy behind the TCB?

Tommy: Well, it’s two-fold. One is I like to make music that’s truly creative and artful, that moves the listener to consider that God cares about him. So that can be a wide range of things — you’re hurting, your life’s got problems. I wrote this song recently about this shoe box program that has given away 100 million shoe boxes to all these kids in war-torn parts of the world.

Jesus: Any time anything horrible happens these guys show up right then, with shoes, tooth brushes, medical supplies, anything those people need.

Tommy: I’ve been to South Sudan, I’ve been to Liberia where Ebola has broken out, and I think it’s the way the truth needs to be presented these days, that you’re not just talking but really doing something to make a difference.

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Footage from Bloomington, IN, 10/20/14 (Courtesy of FunkIt Blog)

 

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Back in Beantown

 

Rochester wanted that funkkkk @lettucemusic @jesuscsuperstar #lettuce #encore

A video posted by Live For Live Music (@liveforlivemusic) on

10/24/14, 8:30 PM, Boston, MA

Deitch: It’s amazing to be back in Boston, we have all our families here, my parents are here, Alecia’s family are here, Shmeeans’ wife is here, it’s a real family affair. Rochester last night was off the chain, we had this encore that was the best encore we ever had becauese the crowd started to go “We Want The Funk! Gotta have that funk!” and it was like the funkiest encore ever, and then we started playing along with the crowd.

L4LM: What’s it like to be back where Lettuce started?

Deitch: It’s great, I mean I was born here also, my parents met here, they went to school here, I went to school here… we’re close to selling out in an 1800 person capacity venue, so that’s pretty good. I went for a walk today to see my parents and get some food, got some clam chowder and a lobster roll, and it was just like walking through this town is such an amazing experience every time. Every street corner is like an old memory of skipping class, sneaking into the old church… it’s just crazy being back and we’re so stoked to have a great crowd tonight.

L4LM: What happened to Neal?

Deitch: Neal broke a rib, man! He broke a rib a few years ago, and then the other night Mark was like “let me crack your back.” And he was like “no I’m good,” and Mark was like “let me crack it” and picks up Neal, and broke a main rib! Like a major rib right above the heart and shit. He can barely move, like I see it in the show he’s clutching it and wincing the entire show. He got it adjusted from the outside to just get it together, and got it wrapped up and just has to leave it like that. And he told me, “if I’m not dancing behind the organ, it’s not cause I ain’t feeling it, it’s cause I can’t move.”

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Origins

10/25/14, 8:00 PM, Burlington, VA

Kraz: It’s great to be back in Burlington. Soulive was a regular at Higher Ground, at the old one and here, but the original one we played a bunch of times in the beginning. We played their first year anniversary and the new one’s ten year anniversary. When I walked in they had a picture of us playing in 2000 on the wall, which was a cool experience. I actually went to high school in southern Vermont, my brother knew the guys from Phish and I ended up going to this party at Fishman’s house and they were all jamming when I was like 15 or 16. We all crashed at Fishman’s house, it was this kind of legendary party. They played music until 8 in the morning or something, we had sleeping bags on his roof. So Vermont’s always had a lot of importance to us and been a huge part of coming up, Soulive actually lived in Vermont when we first started at my mom’s house for maybe the first six months of the band. I’m actually looking at a picture right now of the Black Crowes with Trey, and one of Susan Tedeschi from way back, they all look so young!

L4LM: So how was Boston? Was it great being back where it all started?

Kraz: Boston was amazing, it was packed, we had I think 1600 people or so. We started the band right up the street from where we were playing, at Berklee, that’s where it all began.

L4LM: How did you guys all actually meet up initially at Berklee?

Kraz: Me and Zoidis were in an ensemble together at this 5-week summer program during high school at Berklee. We started hanging out and we’d play each other tapes, I was actually into Phish at the time and I’d play them Phish, Zoidis would play Tower of Power, Deitch was listening to Earth Wind & Fire. We all were listening to the funk era, like Herbie Hancock, that was kind of the thread. Then Deitch and Shmeeans had jammed together so we ran into them, and Jesus – E.D. – was in the same dorm hall. And we just took over the jam rooms there, they were called ensemble rooms but we would go in there and tear down the schedule where you were supposed to sign up and sit down and just play, renegade-style, lock the doors.

L4LM: What was Jesus like back then?

Kraz: I remember had little braids in his hair and a little goatee, all skinny, walking around, he was the most California person I’d ever met. We were all East Coast dudes, and he was like “broooo! Whattttup brooooo!” full-on Cali, bright blonde. So we all played together that summer and went back to school, and then we all decided we would go to college there at Berklee two years later. So two years later we all showed up and we were there, same dorm and everything. That’s when we really started the band. I kinda started booking the gigs and we had to come up with a name, make flyers, I would ride my bike all over town posting flyers up. And back in those days it was like go to the copy shop, piece together these weird flyers where I’d cut a piece of Lettuce out of a magazine or cut the letters out, paste it onto a piece of paper with the show info, print a bunch of copies and walk around town, putting flyers up and handing them out.

We used to do this show, this frat would give us free beers to play their parties at Tufts University. They found us because we played at this other party and we said that we were Lettuce, and this was the first time we had used the name Lettuce and still weren’t sure whether we were gonna use that name cause we all kinda thought it was silly. And then some dude from Tufts started putting flyers around, “Have you seen this band Lettuce?” So that was how we got our first gig.

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Full audio from Montreal, 10/26/14

 

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Eggs Venedict

10/29/14, 7:45 PM, New Haven, CT

L4LM: So it’s been a minute since we chatted, how have the last batch of shows been?

Bloom: Rochester was off the hook. You never know certain nights of the week how attendance is gonna be, but there was a packed audience and the vibe was through the roof. The band really played great, it was a perfect night really. Burlington was off the hook too — Higher Ground always jumps off but it was just amazing. Especially with Gabe on lights, the LD, he really is changing the vibe. Even for me looking out in the audience, it’s a different experience, which makes me play different. Albany was okay, it was a weird vibe. After the day off, when you come back it can be kind of refreshing or it can be a little different, the momentum changes and for me it was an okay show. When you try new material and you mess up sometimes or you don’t do the form right it can derail a show for me. I have to get better at keeping my head in the game in a positive fashion. But that’s the name of the game.

L4LM: So are you pumped for tonight’s show here in New Haven?

Bloom: This is one of the worst, shittiest, but with the best vibe clubs out there. But I love New Haven, there’s a lot of college kids and it’s a great place to introduce a lot of people to Lettuce.

—

L4LM: How’s this pizza everyone’s raving about?

Zoidis: It’s delicious, and it’s my first time having Frank Pepe’s. It’s famous. Supposedly, people who are really into pizza say that’s where New York thin crust came from. New Haven has a bunch of amazing food… Mamoun’s, which is a staple in New York, in the Village by the Blue Note, is around here. There’s also Louie’s Lunch, which is where the hamburger originated. And there’s a lot of arguments about that and no one knows who’s right but they claim to have invented the hamburger in 1875. So lots of history around here…but I only know about the food history, not the real history.

L4LM: How’s your smoothie game lately?

Zoidis: We just came up again, we hit a Whole Foods yesterday and were able to get everything we needed. We got sambazon acai, we got some hemp milk, some more avocados which are in every smoothie now, they give them the best consistency. We’ve been adding raw cocoa powder too which is really good. We got some camu camu, which is super high in vitamin C. We got this thing called amazing grass raw reserve and it’s a micro-green, sea vegetable blend and it’s a superfruit bonanza. It got Jesus fired up this morning, so if it works on him you know it’s working.

L4LM: What else are your favorite things to cook?

Zoidis: One of my specialties is risotto, which is an art and takes awhile to really get good at. The best way to do it is to make a chicken stock, which takes a good two hours to get that right. Then you keep that bubbling on the stove, and you take another pan and sautee onions, garlic, celery or fennel depending on which kind you’re making — say you’re making saffron, that’s my favorite, then you take arborio rice which is the best kind, Italian and gluten-free, you sautee the rice in oil with the onions and other vegetables after they sweat for a little while. You get the rice nice and toasted and then you add the broth, and keep stirring, and let it soak up, then add another cup and keep stirring — 45 minutes of that. You add the saffron at some point, and at the very end you turn the heat off, add like half a stick of butter, half a cup of really good parmesan cheese grated, and you cover it and let it sit for five minutes. And this part is really the hardest to get right, cause you don’t want it to be overcooked, the rice still needs to be in rice form, but you don’t want it to be too al dente cause then it’ll be toothy and crunchy so it needs to be right in that middle zone. I like it kind of wet and thin so it’s decadent and delicious.

I’m great at breakfest too, I made a breakfast in Vermont that was the greatest breakfast of all time. Check this out. So our old friends Eli and Michelle own this great house in Vermont, and their friend had just got a deer with a bow on their property. So Eli actually helped get the deer out of the woods, butchered it and everything, and we had fresh venison. So me and Eli woke up early the day after the show, went and got the freshest farm eggs ever, they had come out that day, freshest possible eggs. And then we went to the store and got some Challah bread and really nice English muffins, this huge sleeve of Vermont-cultured butter, went back to the house and decided to make egg’s benedict with venison. And we had this crazy rub for the venison that had lavendar and all these dried chillies in it, it was spicy but really fragrant and nice, and it was just the most beautiful meat I had ever seen. And then I made a hollandaise with the egg yolks from the farm eggs and lemon and butter, and it came out incredible. So we had the english muffin piled with perfectly cut against the grain, sliced thin venison, seasoned like crazy, with a perfectly poached egg on top — boom — and hollandaise and some fresh tarragon and black pepper.

—

L4LM: So how’s it been going?

Jesus: It’s been going amazingly. Which is an adverb. If you’re talking about a verb you want to use an -ly at the end of your sentence at the end of the word, you don’t want to leave it an adjective and be like “it’s been going amazing.” I don’t subscribe to that. Awesomely, amazingly. So higher ground every night, Boston was a good show but I was nervous on it, but it was fun, it was a great day. We got to talk to students at Berlee. We had about 30 students come to our soundcheck, and I was really adament that they get them in to hear the music cause I was thinking if I was a kid I would want to hear them jam the soundcheck and working out new tunes. It was really cool, and afterwards we talked to them, shook their hands, asked them what instrument they play and kind of encouraged them all. So we also had family there, Adam had his parents there, and House of Blues is just enormous and awesome, the sound system always rules, but technically I was pretty freaking nervous. And I thought I played like decently or terribly. That was an adverb too. But I think it was because my shoes were tied too tight, I should have taken them off. Or I really think the cell phone in my back pocket had a lot to do with the negative vibes. The important part is I have excuses for the show. But we basically took it all out on Burlington the next night and just had the most open, free, powerful, incredible show and got back on schedule without being so self-conscious. And everything since then has been on that level and we’ve been back on it and have some more new material. We’re taking the weekend to play the shit — the stuff — the material. And on the weekdays we’ll do new shit — stuff — music. We’ve got Kraz back tonight, he was at the Boston show and he’ll be here for the rest of the tour which is nice. Speak of the devil — speak of the Krasno…

[Krasno enters]

Jesus: Kraz decided to come in for a quick interruptiview!

Krasno: So I’m from Connecticut, and I made the executive decision to come in for a quick trip.

Jesus: So you know the Toad! [Toad’s Place, the venue]

Krasno: The Toad is a good friend of mine. We’ve known each other for many ages.

Jesus: [to other people in room] Keep it down with that conundrum! I mean, commotion! It’s racking some of my brain compartments and departments and getting all squirly and mixed up. There’s Neal who would not approve of anything I’m saying whatsoever. This interruptivew is going good, Kraz is back. Life is beautiful. We’re all getting along great, we’re all good friends, we’re all brothers and being uplifting and trying to encourage each other and everyone else.

Krasno: The rage is just reaching new levels every day. The new songs are incredible, the arrangements are super sick, it’s been cool to hear it evolve. The new record’s gonna be epic. There’s new sonic elements we’re adding in with a little bit of voyager, talkbox, guitar, getting psychedelic. Watching the lights evolve and the production evolve. I think over time we’ll start adding more and more elements to what we do on stage and get bigger and wider. 

Jesus: We’re basically going towards a Broadway type of thing. Lettuce on Broadway. It’s going for a Vaudeville/Broadway meets the Lion King. We’re basing the new tour off the Lion King, which has been breathtaking. 

—

Deitch: Tonight was epic. It was a wonderful surprise to have my girlfriend show up on a weekday, so that put me in an instant great mood. Then we proceeded to play our new song that we tried to play last night and didn’t accomplish, called “Sounds Like A Party To Me,” and it’s about when you’re on your way to a party that you’re really excited to go to, the soundtrack of walking to that party. So that song came off and we had so much fun, that was really a highlight for me. I just wanna commend the guys for remembering all those new chords and new things. I also want to thank the crowd of New Haven, Connecticut for raging so hard and possibly being the most raging crowd of tour. So props to everyone in here, we love you and we’ll see you soon.

—

Rage-o-ween

11/1/2014, 4:30 PM, Philadelphia, PA

Krasno: Here we are, we’re approaching the Electric Factory in Philly, which is a venue that we’ve played a bunch of times over the years, had some great shows here so I’m excited to bring it tonight. Last night was, I think, one of the best shows of our tour. Definitely the energy in coming home on Halloween was huge, and everyone got dressed up as different superheroes. We also got to do a Soulive set which felt really good, did a kind of loose, heavily improvised set and I just felt like we connected. And then Lettuce came out with the banger set. I thought it was a great night. Over the years we’ve done a lot of Halloween stuff. This year we teased some superhero themes, but in the past we’ve done all sorts of tributes – James Brown, the Beatles – so there’s always a pressure to do something cool. But I actually enjoyed the fact that we just played all of our own music, played a bunch of new music last night cause we have a lot of new stuff for the new record, so we were in New York and wanted to show people the new direction we’re going. Now getting ready to go into the studio and record a bunch of stuff with Lettuce, and with Souive, in the next few months. Next year we’ll have a bunch of new music coming out.

Alecia: I’ll just add the crowd was great, so full of love and that’s always amazing. It was nice to see everybody include a little bit of theatrics into the opening of the set. Maybe that’s a new chapter for Lettuce, I don’t know! But just great energy and a really great way to close out this month with everybody, the hometown show.

L4LM: What have you got going on in the coming months?

Alecia: Well I’ve got Bear Creek coming up with my little honky-tonk band with my dad, it’ll be a real family affair, and then doing my stuff with Lettuce. Got a great Last Waltz tribute up at the Capitol, and just keeping busy throughout the year and playing with my fam.

L4LM: How do you feel the progression of the tour went musically, between everybody what was the general vibe?

Alecia: I think after we got everything rolling, after the first couple of gigs, everyone was pushing themselves to create new music and approach songs in a new way, but still kind of keep that new mindfulness around more conscious arrangements of songs, not just loose jams but to arrange the songs and make them have more of an impact in a shorter period of time. So it’s been really neat to see everyone push in that way.