Lake Street Dive’s Orpheum Theatre Tickets Are About to Sell Out Again

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Lake Street Diving Tour

when: August 1 at 8 p.m.

Where: Orpheum Theatre

Tickets: Ticketing Website

Lake Street DiveThe eighth album from the quintet is titled Good Together. For the many devoted fans of this five-piece group, it’s a self-explanatory title. Since forming in 2004, the group has been doing really, really well.

The Boston band’s blend of pop, R&B beats and the great American songwriting style has helped it tow the circuit and play major festivals thanks to the word-of-mouth of its live shows, and the video for the new album’s title track captures that love with a montage of live performances and backstage antics.

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Of course, it’s not every day that talented musicians like singer Rachel Price, bassist Bridget Kearney, keyboardist and singer Akie Bermiss, guitarist James Cornelison and drummer Mike Calabrese come together. Each of these musicians could lead their own bands, and many have side projects. Together, they create a signature sound. Even the band’s special cover videos every Halloween bring new dimensions to these classics, from George Michael’s Faith and Hall & Oates’ You Make My Dreams Come True to Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman’s This Magic Moment.

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Drummer Calabrese talked about the album’s making from his home in Vermont, when the band members came together to write new material, and he credits that approach for the crackling sound of songs like the funky title track.

“We’ve been exchanging and combining ideas over email or voice messages for years, and this was the first time in a long time that we got together and said, ‘Hey, what do you have, wanna play?’” he said. “It was awkward, to be honest, because we hadn’t done this in a while. But Akie and Bridget had always been interested in Dungeons & Dragons, and they both brought 20-sided dice, and we came up with the idea of ​​assigning values ​​to each number to determine time signatures, chord structures, and each of us took turns being the ‘captain.’”

One member will then develop a concept based on their character and craft a song around it, which the band will then develop through recording.

“Then the leader would take the recording, split up for a few hours, try to come up with a song, and then the band would finish it,” he says. “I’m sure three songs on the new album started that way, and one song started that way. It’s a really cool way to incorporate a healthy amount of restriction or an impersonal aspect into an otherwise very personal songwriting task, because a little bit of restriction is really good for the creative process.”

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Which of the 11 new tracks was written in this way is left to the listener to guess. But anyone can tell how carefully crafted these new tracks are. From the slurred chorus of Dance With a Stranger to the gospel-jazz chorus of Help is On the Way to the soul-pop of Better Not Tell You, this album sounds like every note was studied before it was included.

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It seems strange to imagine that any final songwriting was done in such a seemingly random way.

“Every few years you write a new album and have to ask what’s it going to be this time?” Calabrese says. “We’re always looking for ways to change it up and keep moving forward, even though we do move forward in the soul-jazz-pop sound that we formed a long time ago. Nobody’s as free or uninhibited as we were before, but you have to mix it up and keep it interesting and keep the family energy.”

With the exception of original member Mike (McDuck) Olson, who retired, the band has kept its original members and grown together. Today, the band bus is fully equipped to take care of singer Price’s newborn, and everyone is balancing careers and other commitments. Fortunately, these life changes haven’t translated into a shift toward grandiose, introspective ballads about bottles and poop. Calabrese says Lake Street Dive is all about bringing the whole family together.

“You know how the world is, there’s a lot to celebrate and a lot to worry about,” he said. “While we’re not a rebellious group of hardcore activists in any sense, in this day and age, if you’re happy, you’re not paying attention. But keeping your head up means finding and reinforcing ways to be happy, and music can be a great vehicle for that.”

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Lake Street Dive’s shows are designed to lift the mood of the crowd and keep everyone upbeat, even when singing sad, slower songs. Calabrese is one of the most cheerful drummers, and he admits that he loves to play and plays every day. The only trouble the band has right now is coming up with a new set list for the tour, as there are several nights along the way that need to be filled and new shows need to be added.

“We found ourselves with so much material to choose from, which is not a bad thing, but it was a real challenge for us to come up with a setlist for the tour now,” he said. “In fact, this was the first time we went into the warehouse and everything went so smoothly, from the lighting and sound to the setlist transition and thinking about alternative tracks to add. It was the first time we started from scratch.”

A limited number of tickets are available for Lake Street Dive’s upcoming show at the Orpheum.

sderdeyn@postmedia.com

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