Lake Street Dive - Whelans - by Abe Tarrush (9)-banner

Lake Street Dive at Whelan’s, Friday 2nd May 2014

The Brooklyn invasion continues. Having in the past month enjoyed the “gothic pop” (awful term) of San Fermin and the restyled sixties pop of Lucius, Dublin now gets to play host to the soul revival (awful, awful terms) of four-piece Lake Street Dive. They’re on their second album now, the latest of which ‘Bad Self Portraits’ is packed with quality retro soul numbers, so they have plenty of great tunes to choose from for tonight’s set-list. A few new numbers even make an appearance, but everything in its place.

It’s a tired cliché, but it’s true that each of the four members of Lake Street Dive seem to be entirely essential to the personality of the band. Rachael Price is the traditional frontwoman but she’s not above relinquishing the spotlight to Bridget Kearney (a paisan?) on bass, who repeatedly introduces some much needed energy, or McDuck on an occasionally wistful trumpet or Mike Calabrese on drums when he pops in with a vocal guest appearance.

It’s a bit jarring, as we expect the frontwoman to claim the stage, like some sort of soulful sundress-wearing Putin, and without this we do find our attention drifting from time to time. But it doesn’t last, as we see during Use Me Up. You’d almost not notice a song is being performed on the stage until the music stops and Mike beats out something simple on the drums, enough to knock the song from its lethargy, at which point it comes back exactly as it was before but with more energy and the attention of the chatter-heavy Friday night crowd in tow.

What Rachael lacks in attention-grabbing antics she more than makes up for in moments of quiet transcendence (“is she making eye-contact with me?”) and an effortlessly natural soul voice that seasons-worth of X-Factor and American Idol winners can’t even fathom. Backing up her distinct sound are the completely shiver-inducing harmonies of her bandmates, which kick in dramatically on opening track Stop Your Crying and shine through the entire set from there.

The atmosphere is a bit strange, and the band seem slightly distant at times. It certainly doesn’t help that the ever-charismatic Bridget is stuck to the back of the stage and Mike is glued to his drums front-right and as we soon see, this band is at its best when all four members – each unwilling to claim the spotlight for any sustained period – just let go and have fun. Their performance of Seventeen is a joy, as the tempo-change offers lots of opportunity for spontaneity which some of their more generically structured songs lack. The chorus at one point is slowed down to an endearingly grueling pace, until Rachael comes in at the end of it with an almost rapped “I think we could’ve had a good time” and the soul-clapping starts. It’s one of several brilliant fun moments during the set, completely based on moments in specific songs where the unexpected is allowed to intervene.

They come back for an encore of their star-making cover of I Want You BackBridget plays the opening note as if in preparation, but the crowd cheers in recognition of what’s to come and after a pause she just continues on. We’re told to sing along if we like but once we hear Rachael’s gorgeous jazzy voice singing “when I had you to myself” the urge to sing over her simply dies. The gig sets up its own unique atmosphere, always somewhere on the spectrum between musically satisfying and incredibly enjoyable, and new song Love Doctor shows the songwriting to still be as consistently strong as their last album. Can this band be even better live than they are tonight? Probably. But when the Jackson 5 number comes to a close and the band whispers a definitive “I want you back”, we have to say that we couldn’t agree more.

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Photos:Abe Tarrush

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