(L–R) Merch browsers Nancy Hoodes, Kira Hill-Filben and Mike Filben are all about Lake Street Dive’s socks, T-shirts and pins. Hoodes hopes to hear “Rabid Animal” tonight. Photo: John Barkiple
(L–R) Katie Browning and Dawnie Nelson love Lake Street Dive. “They’re perfect,” says Browning, who hopes to hear “God Awful Things” played tonight. Nelson wants to hear “Go Down Smooth” and is “deeply in love with Rachael Price.” Photo: John Barkiple
(L–R) Kellan Warner and Havelah Weinhardt came to see Gregory Alan Isakov, but they’ll stay for Lake Street Dive. “My sister played This Empty Northern Hemisphere [Isakov’s album from 2009] nonstop for three weeks while I was living with her. It’s fantastic,” she says. They’re dining on figs and an arugula and tomato salad dressed with olive oil. Photo: John Barkiple
Gregory Alan Isakov promised to play some melancholy music in advance of Lake Street Dive’s lively set. He figured that LSD could turn around any depressing mood he managed to establish in the opening act. Photo: John Barkiple
Gregory Alan Isakov and his band opened for Lake Street Dive at Red Butte Garden on Aug. 14, 2016. Photo: John Barkiple
Gregory Alan Isakov’s band usually includes Jeb Bows on violin, Philip Parker on cello, Steve Varney on banjo and guitar, Max Barcelow on drums, John Grigsby on bass and James Han on piano. Tonight, he added a French horn, another violin and a cello to the mix. Photo: John Barkiple
Gregory Alan Isakov (with hat) takes a bow with his bandmates after a performance in front of a substantial fan presence at the Lake Street Dive show. Several enthusiastic concertgoers described their years-long devotion to Isakov. Photo: John Barkiple
Fans scream in reaction to the giant inflatable horse galloping onstage during Lake Street Dive’s performance of “Side Pony” at Red Butte Garden on Aug. 14, 2016. Photo: John Barkiple
Mike “McDuck” Olson switched between trumpet and guitar during Lake Street Dive’s Red Butte Garden show. Photo: John Barkiple
Mike Calabrese played drums and sang backing vocals for Lake Street Dive’s “Stop Your Crying.” Photo: John Barkiple
All four Lake Street Dive bandmates sing during “Stop Your Crying.” Part of LSD’s appeal includes the vocal richness that comes from four voices singing in tandem. Photo: John Barkiple
With lyrics like “Stop your crying” and “You know I’ll be the one to let you back in,” Lake Street Dive’s lead singer Rachael Price channels the misery of every on-again, off-again relationship experienced by the audience. Photo: John Barkiple
That adorable, scolding finger reinforces Price’s lyrical point that she doesn’t want to say “No,” and she’s ashamed to say “Yes”—it’s a stage-worthy gesture that connects her to an adoring audience. Photo: John Barkiple
Mike Calabrese grabbed a tambourine to add some punch to “Stop Your Crying.” Photo: John Barkiple
Rachael Price’s voice can chide and seduce and inspire, and she sings with a dynamic intensity that ranges from coarse whispers to soulful pleas to manic cries. Photo: John Barkiple
Bridget Kearney on upright bass keeps it low-key on the back row, but her finger-plucked bass lines keep Lake Street Dive on track and on message. Photo: John Barkiple
Lake Street Dive’s Rachael Price favors high waists and wide legs in her attire onstage; these allow her to exaggerate her gestures during her performances. In addition, her fabulous blowout bounces around her head like an energetic fifth member of the band. Photo: John Barkiple
A barefoot Mike Calabrese taps a staccato rhythm during “Clear a Space.” Photo: John Barkiple
Lake Street Dive’s Rachael Price sends it to the back row with graceful gestures and bold expressions that infuse her singing with obvious emotion. Photo: John Barkiple
An instrumentless Rachael Price took the lead on vocals for Lake Street Dive at Red Butte Garden. Photo: John Barkiple
Mike “McDuck” Olson plays trumpet on “Clear a Space” from LSD’s 2012 EP Fun Machine. Photo: John Barkiple
Each member of Lake Street Dive has written songs for the LSD catalog, and there’s a delightful songwriting workshop on YouTube in which they dissect and play a few songs at their alma mater, the New England Conservatory. The segment on “You Go Down Smooth” reveals the song’s backstory and structure. Photo: John Barkiple
A cool, canyon breeze lifted Price’s hair as the moon rose behind the Red Butte Garden stage during a lively performance by Lake Street Dive on Aug. 14, 2016. Photo: John Barkiple
Bridget Kearney drives a steady bass line through “How Good It Feels,” a song she wrote while spooked and alone in a classic, horror-movie cabin in the woods—or something like that. That LSD overdose may have clouded my memory of Price’s intro. Photo: John Barkiple
After singing an unconvincing endorsement of being alone in “How Good It Feels,” Rachael Price finally admits to herself “how good it feels to have a friend.” As the song argues, there’s nothing like a cold and lonely night to remind us of the value of having good friends close at hand. Photo: John Barkiple
Five months into their Side Pony tour, Lake Street Dive clobbered the Red Butte audience with a set filled with soulful, jazzy enthusiasm. And as a rabid fan, my concert experience teetered between rapt attention and photojournalistic intensity. As Rachael Price danced in my 400mm sights, it seemed as if I were onstage beside her while she seduced Sunday’s crowd of affectionate fans, who sang along to songs drawn from the entire Lake Street Dive catalog of classics, covers and tour album tracks—magical. I tell you, it was magical. Twenty songs later, the fans still wanted more.
Lake Street Dive led with “Godawful Things,” followed by “I Don’t Care About You” and “Side Pony” (with a cameo by a life-sized, inflatable horse). “Stop Your Crying,” “Clear a Space” and “How Good It Feels” set the stage for a cover of “Lola” by The Kinks. A solid block of Side Pony tracks, including “Hell Yeah,” “Saving All My Sinning,” “Spectacular Failure” and “Mistakes” left the band ready for another cover, this one from Prince: “When You Were Mine.” Price then prepped the audience to sing backup on 2010’s “Got Me Fooled” and followed with “Elijah” from that same, self-titled debut album. Next, they played “What I’m Doing Here,” written as a 2014 Record Store Day release, followed by three songs from Bad Self Portraits: “You Go Down Smooth,” “Bad Self Portraits” and “Seventeen.” Those 18 songs had lured most of the audience to its feet, so LSD finished with a final Side Pony track, the crowd-pleasing “Call Off Your Dogs.”
Screaming fans and dark stage lights implied an encore, and Lake Street Dive didn’t disappoint. They belted out Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” to an astonished crowd and promised to meet and greet fans who wanted to stick around after the show. Lake Street Dive clearly leveled up from The State Room, which hosted them in the past, but it’ll take a venue the size of Red Butte or bigger make room for Lake Street Dive’s next visit to Salt Lake.
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![(L–R) Kellan Warner and Havelah Weinhardt came to see Gregory Alan Isakov, but they’ll stay for Lake Street Dive. “My sister played This Empty Northern Hemisphere [Isakov’s album from 2009] nonstop for three weeks while I was living with her. It’s fantastic,” she says. They’re dining on figs and an arugula and tomato salad dressed with olive oil. Photo: John Barkiple](https://www.slugmag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fans_RedButte_BARKIPLE-5205.jpg)
