Lake Street Dive – September 6th – Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Like all things in this human condition, art also follows the circle of life. Having just seen the memorials in honor of Aretha Franklin’s passing and feeling like there is a vacuum now in the world of great vocalist…suddenly the circle closed and the gap was filled by Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive. I had no idea that she was going to fill that empty slot, as I never seen her live in performance until last week’s Red Rocks show, but it only took about three songs for me to realize this was the greatest vocal performance I had ever personally witnessed!  Make no mistake, this is not a fluff piece,  without a doubt in my mind Price’s pipes are the best I’ve ever heard – and I’ve seen more than a few shows. She has every bit of the range, projection and scale of Adele, but with the soul and grit of an Amy Winehouse. Her ability to jump all over the scale and sustain notes for seemingly ever was beyond belief, her vocal gymnastics were absolutely mind-blowing.  I wasn’t alone as I would look around in disbelief and see other people looking at me like we all just saw something superhuman happen before our very eyes.  They did.  At one point Miranda Lambert joined her on stage for a song, which was beautiful but frankly Lambert looked like an amateur in the company of Price. Not only does she front LSD with authority and passion, she moves around the stage like a Lynx stalking her prey.  I haven’t seen someone front a band like that since Eddie Vedder first blew my mind many moons ago.  Not to take any accolades away for the band, they are tight as a fiddle string and as on point as a dagger.  The unique arrangements to their well written songs are the perfect counterpart to the hypnotic lyrics and great storytelling.  The band as a whole was perfectly suited to surround this incredible voice.  The audience was privy to a special night, and the band expressed the same feeling via a double encore.  If you missed this one, you really missed out….