Lake Street Dive gets predictable - and that's a good thing

One of many positives that can be stated about Lake Street Dive is that when it comes to consistency, this band is spot on.

While you may not exactly know what you're going to get song-wise from LSD, you know the quality is there time after time after time.

It all starts with lead singer Rachael Price. Stating the obvious, Price has a powerhouse voice as she amply demonstrated throughout the 92-minute show. Price can go jazzy, soulful, poppy, Americana-ish, even Burt Bacharach ("Anyone Who Had a Heart," a 1964 hit for Dionne Warwick) with whatever comes her way, and does it without showing off. Price had her stage mannerisms down pretty pat too with hand movements and a kick into the air to punctuate the songs and dancing about the large stage.

Yet, LSD has never been all about Price. All five band members played key roles from keyboardist Akie Bermiss, who took lead vocals a number of times, including "Alone Again," to the sometimes sharp, but never overdone guitar chops of James Cornelius. Mike Calabrese remained as sure handed as ever on drums and also got to sing. Mainly upright bassist Brittany Kearny kept the bottom moving while also helping out on backing vocals.

Lake Street Dive emphasized its most recent release "Obviously" with the first three songs – the upbeat "Know That I Know," "Hypotheticals" and "Hush Money" – all coming from there.

LSD offered well-placed social commentary on "Being a Woman" with the lines:
"Being a woman is an uphill climb
80 cents on the dollar
And you need every dime
'Cause you've got a little baby
And she cries all the time

The strong woman bent continued with "Nobody's Stopping You Now" later in the show.

In a lighter way, Lake Street Dive into tried-and-true while emphasizing the woman who know what she wants with their hits "Good Kisser" closing the regular set and "You Go Down Smooth" the first of two encore songs.

Call this your typically predictable Lake Street Dive show...and that's a great thing.

Devon Gilfillian opened with a satisfying set of soulful sounds with a bit of the blues thrown into the mix. The Pennsylvania native started off with the slow burn of "Even Though It Hurts" before quickly turning up a few notches for the remainder of his 40 minutes on stage.

The set grew more forceful with the addition of keyboards on "Unchained" and a harder edge to the guitar playing.

Gilfillian wasn't content to stand still though as he then he took it way down on Marvin Gaye's antiwar song "What's Goin' On." Gilfillian released an entire tribute to the album, and here playing the biggest hit from Gaye's disc, did not set out to simply replicate the tried and true. And he struck a note of unity on "Love You Anyway."

Gilfillian had more than a little bit of Lenny Kravitz in his style as well by merging rock and soul particularly towards the close, receiving a well-deserved enthusiastic response from the crowd.