Lake Street Dive, with supporting act The Suffers, is wrapping up the first leg of their East coast tour before heading out to Europe for a major tour. On Saturday night, March 19th, the band’s Side Pony Tour rolled into Richmond, VA for a sold out show at The National. Considering all the remaining dates of their US tour have sold out, expectations were quite high.
The Suffers warmed up the crowd with their ‘Gulf Coast Soul’ groove that paired up well with the genre bending headliner’s sound. The Houston, TX based soul band had a big year in 2015, with performances at the Newport Folk Festival, Austin City Limits Music Festival, The Late Show with David Letterman, and NPR’s Tiny Desk. They laid down a great vibe that set the tone for Lake Street Dive’s set.
Watch ‘The Suffers’ – NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert below:
House lights turned down, just a hint of backlighting silhouetting the band, the cheers from the crowd growing increasingly louder, and Lake Street Dive took the stage! The band busted out into an adrenaline inducing version of ‘God Awful Things,’ a tune from their new album Side Pony that was released in February 2016 on Nonesuch Records.
Mixing tracks from their new album in with old favorites like ‘Seventeen’, ‘Clear A Space’, “You Go Down Smooth’, and ‘Bad Self Portraits’ the band kept the crowd moving and shaking to their signature jazz/pop/folk rock sound. Mid-show, fans were treated to a special version of ‘Spectacular Failure’ featuring members from The Suffers horn section sitting in.
The night came to a close with a rousing rendition of a track from their new album ‘Call Off Your Dogs’. With the crowd demanding more the 4 piece with special guest Kam Franklin from The Suffers returned to the stage for an encore performance of ‘What I’m Doing Here.’
Lake Street Dive always puts on a spectacular show and leave you wanting more, amazed at the evolution of their sound as a band that is only getting better with age. LSD used some of that magic that can only be created by spending large amounts of time in a small smelly van on this next tune. For the 2nd encore the audience was left standing in awe as they contemplated in their heads “Is this real life?, Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.” Rachael Price used her sultry soulful sounding voice to wow the crowd with a jazzy version of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ that featured one of the sickest stand up bass solos I’ve ever seen/heard, performed by LSD’s resident bass wizardess Bridget Kearney. The perfect ending to the night!
Watch Lake Street Dive perform ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ below:
Visit Lake Street Dive’s website for tour dates and to purchase their new album Side Pony.
Check out a full gallery of images below, courtesy of Sam Shinault Photography:
