Rachel Price and McDuck of Lake Street Drive (photo: Joshua Huver)
On Saturday night, August 26, the Mountain Winery was alive with an old-school soul coming from a younger act than usually graces the mountain-top vineyard amphitheater: Lake Street Dive.
2017 has been a strong year for Lake Street Dive. A thrilling four-piece from Brooklyn by way of Boston, they were joined nearly throughout the entire evening by fellow Brooklynite Akie Bermiss on keyboards and vocals. Bermiss, along with drummer Michael Calabrese, bassist Bridget Kearney, guitarist and trumpet player Mike “McDuck” Olson, were, for the most part, immobilized by their instruments on the outer edge of the stage. But don’t think that means they weren’t animated the whole show.
That left lead vocalist Rachel Price to hold down front and center. Opening local act Bhi Bhiman ended his set just as the sun was setting, and Price and company waited for it to finish before taking the stage around 8:45. To start, they sandwiched “I Don’t Care About You” from last year’s Side Pony (their most recent record) between the title track of 2014’s Bad Self Portraits and “Rabid Animal” from the same album.
Side Pony reemerged for the tunes “Mistakes” and “Saving All My Sinning” next, split by one of their earliest tunes “Hello? Goodbye!” from their 2010 major label self titled debut. About this time, Bermiss joined the band onstage. He originally was scheduled for the band’s spring tour, but he clearly is a good fit. We’d love to see him continue with the band. Two more songs from the new record, “Spectacular Failure” and “How Good It Feels” followed.
After taking a breather, one floodlight shone over Kearny as she tore through a five minute bass solo and into a brand new song called “Bang On” which she co-wrote with guitarist McDuck. “Good Kisser,” another brand new tune, followed.
Of the next eight songs, only two came from the new record. For the most part, Lake Street Dive decided to go after some fan favorites, including a riveting cover of George Michaels’s “Faith.”
Just as the Mountain Winery crowd was starting to get loose, and some people started to stand and dance, Price said: “You don’t have to stop dancing, but we’re going to break it down for a couple of songs.” The band members then crowded the center stage for a stripped down, percussive rendition of “Faith”.
“Use Me Up” paved the way for the George Michael cover and two more songs from their 2010 debut. “Don’t Make Me Hold Your Hand” was preceded by a brief anecdote and plainly stated fact that Price used to be McDuck’s downstairs neighbor and the resulting “Neighbor Song” as well as a gut busting drum solo from Calabrese.
Side Pony‘s title track bled into “Just Ask,” and prompted Price to mention that they only had a few more songs left to go. This information caused all of the Mountain Winery Crowd to stand up and dance the rest of the show out.
Ironically, the 17th track of the evening was the 2014 tune “Seventeen.” The band ended the set with “Call Off Your Dogs.” For the encore, which took less than two minutes to return for, they played the fan favorite “You Go Down Smooth” and closed with an old song that made the cut on their debut record called “My Speed.”
