For Lettuce’s third-annual Rage Fest, which took place on Friday night at New Orleans’ Joy Theater, the band had some special guests up their sleeve in addition to a standout supporting set from DJ Soul Sister. Increasingly, with their most recent Beyond The Clouds tour, Lettuce has been focusing on extending their jams, with the group seemingly relishing the exploratory and psychedelic improvisations they’ve been getting deeper and deeper into.

During the show, Lettuce’s ongoing musical evolution was on full display, with the band going deep on classic tracks from across their extensive song catalog. Given that Rage Fest has become a special tradition for the group, the band had some special surprised planned for their show. For the first set’s final song, “Trap”, the band welcomed out the Booker T Washington High School Marching Band, inviting the talented group of teens to join them on stage. It was a truly heartwarming moment during the show, watching inspiring young musicians join some of the most talented and lauded musicians in the scene. Rather than leaving once “Trap” was over, the Booker T Washington High School Marching Band stayed on the stage, playing through the set break with a fun, high-energy set of their own.

As for special guests during the second set, Lettuce invited out guitarist Eric Krasno, a founding member of the group who unfortunately is unable to play with them as frequently as fans and the band would like him to. Krasno sat in for “Last Suppit”, off 2008’s Rage!, as well as for “Kron Dutch”, an older Lettuce tune that dates back to 2004’s Live In Tokyo. Krasno then departed from the stage—he would rejoin with Lettuce members later in the night at Bayou Rendezvous for Krasno’s own Dr. Klaw set featuring Adam Deitch and Nigel Hall in addition to Nick Daniels III and Ian Neville—leaving Lettuce to wrap things up with fan-favorite originals “Chief It Up”, “Lettsanity”, “Phyllis”, and “Squadlive”.

Setlist: Lettuce | Joy Theater | New Orleans, LA | 5/3/2018

Set One: Blast Off, KHRU, Prince SMNZ, Purple Cabbage, Chief It Up, Blaze, Trap (with Booker T Washington High School Marching Band)

Set Two: Gang Ten, Moksha > The Force, Last Suppit (with Kraz), Kron Dutch (with Kraz), Chief It Up, Lettsanity, Phyllis, JBs Squadlive

Encore: Do It Like You Do