Soulive, Lettuce, & Rahzel

I’ve been looking forward to this show since it was announced long ago. I’m a fan of Soulive and they always put on a good show, especially the Rubber Soulive tour, but I’ve never seen Lettuce and I dig raw funk and a horn section. I got tickets only a day or two in advance; I was surprised they were still available.

Teri and I tried to go to Mad Fox for dinner. It was the first day of their cask week. I’m a fan of fresh cask beer. Unfortunately the place was packed and had about a 40 minute wait. So we headed to the old staple Argia's which is almost next door to the State Theater. I ran in and put our name on the list, jumped back in the car and we found a place to park and break, then a minute after we walked in we were seated. Always good Italian food.

At 9:00 the line at the door was huge. And it was a bit cold. After waiting we ditched our coats in the car and walked in the warm venue. It took a few minutes for my ears and head to stop hurting. The place was packed. We headed up to the balcony to relax for the beginning of the show. The balcony was full but we found good seats with leg room. Lee walked past us but didn’t see/hear us in the dark. Soulive threw down as usual. It was a nice groovin’ set. They played a Beatles medley from their last tour that rocked. The crowd was crazy. Lots of young people on various intoxicants.

During the intermission between Soulive and Lettuce a guy named Rahzel came out and did his thing. It was quite impressive. With just his mouth and a microphone he threw out some crazy beats. He could put out a super low bass note that rumbled the whole place, and beat box on top of that, while also throwing in other odd DJ scratching noises and lyrics. It was something to see and hear. He made a point to count out all the tracks/sounds he was doing at the same time. Teri liked the car crashing and mechanical gear sounds. What impressed me the most was his ability to beat box while singing. You had to see it to believe it. He was entertaining.

Finally Lettuce took the stage. The guitarist and keyboard player from Soulive played as part of the band. The drummer, bass, and other guitarist all wore flat rimmed baseball hats and had that NYC or LA look. The could play some funk though. The horn section accented the grooves well. Teri and I got down in front during intermission for Rahzel and everyone was dancing around on the floor for Lettuce. It wasn’t as crowded as I was expecting close to the stage. They played a fun set. They seemed to be able to take a simple funk riff and put a great song around it. Lettuce only played a couple of shows with Soulive. Hope I can catch them again before too long.