reCAP :: Lettuce w/ The London Souls :: 2016.04.08
There was a funk explosion at the Cap on Friday, April 8th. Veteran rockers, Lettuce, treated the crowd to an engaging, energetic and raucous show. They entertained the audience for over 2 hours with an eclectic mix of toe-tapping rage music.
The band consists of professional musicians: Adam (Shmeeans) Smirnoff (guitar), Adam Deitch (drums), Erick (Jesus) Coomes (bass), Ryan Zoidis (sax), Neal Evans (keys), and Eric Bloom (trumpet). They formed in the 90’s with members attending the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Thus, they know each other’s tendencies and are familiar with how to best play off each other within such a cohesive unit. The band got its name when in the early days they would plead to various local venue bosses in Boston, “Let Us Play!” and the unique moniker has stuck ever since.
The popularity of Lettuce has grown exponentially in recent years. They have been intensely touring across the United States and overseas. They sold out Red Rocks in Colorado and were the headliner of the inaugural Fools Paradise Festival in Florida. Unfortunately, fans were not blessed with the presence of guitar virtuoso, Eric “Kraz” Krasno for this show. He has been absent from numerous shows in the past year due to his participation in a plethora of side projects including producing the new album by London Souls. (London Souls opened for Lettuce at this Cap show.)
Constantly lumped into a category with Galactic, Dumpstaphunk and the Motet, with the fiery power and energy brought to light from the band on this night, they again proved to be the undisputed masters of the funk scene. There was a myriad of highlights from this bombardment to the senses. The band’s most known and popular song, “Madison Square” was the 2nd song played of the night and was a successful invitation for the audience to get into the contagious groove and start a full out danceathon. Adam Deitch kept the time and again demonstrated why he is always in the conversation as best heavy hitter behind the skins in the scene. The brass section added a brilliant depth of sound and layered landscape. The jam-laden show weaved its way through a few incendiary instrumental explorations until the announcement of Nigel Hall! Buoyed by Hall’s infusion of soulful energy, he led the outfit through slick and mesmerizing melodic musings including a lengthy and explosive “Express Yourself.” After a relentless fury of intense emotionally charged music, fans were left more than satiated.
Setlist: Egyptian Secrets > Madison Square, Get Greasy, Last Suppit, The Dump, Trillogy, The Force > Harmonic Jam, Lettsanity, Express Yourself > Remember The Children, Chief, The Lobbyist > Phyllis, Squadlive, Don't Change For Me, Sounds Like A Party
Encore: Do It Like You Do > Funky Drummer
Check out Lettucefunk.com for more information.