Lettuce brought their soulful grooves to a capacity crowd at Portland, OR’s Roseland Theater on Friday, February 5th, playing a show that had fans dancing as big as they were smiling.
Chicago hip-hop artist Probcause opened the show with his first Portland performance, with the crowd seemingly appreciative of his solid beats and lyrical prowess. Probcause had a personable stage presence and engaged the crowd, at one point praising the power of Oregon cannabis.
Lettuce, on tour in support of their new album Crush, took no prisoners as they infected and animated the crowd with their hard-driving funk grooves. Anchored by drummer Adam Deitch and bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes, the band’s current lineup includes Neal Evans on keyboards, Adam Smirnoff on guitar, Ryan Zoidis on saxophone and Eric Bloom on trumpet.
Nigel Hall came out for good portions of each set to add soulful vocals, and Farnell Newton added a second trumpet for a song. The Roseland crowd was eager to match the energy of the band, and the dance party that ensued didn’t let up until the last notes were long gone.
The first set ended with a tribute to Maurice White, with Hall saying that if everybody listened to Earth, Wind & Fire in the morning, the world would be a better place. This show gave reason to believe that listening to Lettuce in the morning would have the same effect.
After two decades as a band, Lettuce seems to be in a musical mind-meld. The group moves as a single unit, and have put their own stamp on the funk genre. When they come to down, don’t miss out!
If you want to catch Lettuce lay down some funk and collaborate with GRiZ for the first time ever, along with Vulfpeck, Chris Robinson’s Soul Revue, Nth Power, and Goldfish, then be sure to head down to St. Augustine, FL from April 1-2 for Fool’s Paradise! The brand new festival promises one of a kind music, just minutes away from the beach. What better way to funk out could there be?! Tickets and more information can be found here.
Check out a full gallery of images, courtesy of Greg Homolka, below:
