Need a little help to get through the week most of the time? Lake Street Dive will definitely help you out with that on Thursday, May 17th with their show at The Palace Theatre in Saint Paul. The title of Lake Street Dive’s Free Yourself Up is both an exhortation to listeners and a statement of purpose for the band. The songs have an infectious swagger, even when dealing with awkward breakups or the unsettled state of our world. Free Yourself Up is Lake Street Dive’s most confident album yet, seriously soulful and exuberantly rocking. And, in many ways, it is Lake Street Dive’s most intimate and collaborative, with the band itself taking over the production reins and working as a tightly knit unit to craft these ten songs. In addition, the quartet drafted touring keyboardist Akie Bermiss to join them in the studio, literally freeing the band up to explore a wider range of instrumental textures, construct more full-bodied arrangements, and build stacks of lively background harmonies.
Lake Street Dive was for many years a self-reliant unit. After forming in 2004, while all the members were studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, they assiduously built a following through a series of independent album releases, countless club tours, and a few lucky breaks. In 2013, producer T Bone Burnett invited them to join a star-studded lineup at a New York City concert where they practically stole the show—and wound up with a deal from Nonesuch Records. The band’s label debut, Side Pony, was greeted with raves. Rolling Stone called it “irresistible” and the Boston Globe said, “Side Pony is a confident, expertly played statement from a band that’s been honing its approach for more than a decade, and it clearly shows that Lake Street Dive is ready to make itself known to whatever audiences have yet to succumb to its many charms.”
Liz Vice will be kicking off the night. “I didn’t think I was going to live past 20 years old,” recounts Liz Vice. It’s a surprising revelation considering the vitality and energy she exudes onstage, but it brings context to the utter joy and gratefulness and humility and magic that imbues her soulful voice throughout There’s A Light, her debut album. Vice is an unlikely breakout artist—she’ll be the first to tell you that she never intended to share her singing voice with anyone—but she’s overcome the odds with a survivor’s spirit, discovering that sometimes we have to travel dark roads and long nights before the sun can illuminate our true path.
Tickets are still available here but, be warned, to say Lake Street Dive is buzzing would be an understatement and I would suspect this show sells out prior to the show.
Remaining Tour Dates:
May 8 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
May 9 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall
May 10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
May 12 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
May 13 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls
May 15 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
May 17 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theater
May 18 – Des Moines, IA @ Simon Estes
May 19 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
May 21 – Albuquerque, NM @ Kimo Theater
May 23 – Los Angeles, CA@ Ford Theater
May 24 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
May 25 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
May 27 – Napa Valley, CA @ Bottle Rock Festival
May 29 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore
May 30 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market
June 1 – Ogden, UT@ Ogden Music Festival
June 23 – Ottawa, ONT @ Ottawa Jazz Festival
June 25 – Toronto, ONT @ Toronto Jazz Festival
June 28 – Rochester, NY @ International Jazz Festival
July 8 – Marshfield, MA @ Levitate Festival
