Ravinia 2021 - Issue 3

Lake Street Dive vocalist Rachael Price and drummer Mike Calabrese at Ravinia in 2019 SHERVIN LAINEZ (FACING PAGE); RAVINIA/RUSSELL JENKINS Making it Obvious Lake Street Dive rings the changes with songs for feeling strong By WeB Behrens A FUNNY THING HAPPENED the day before I spoke to Mike Calabrese on the phone: I found out we’ve only got two degrees of separation. As I dug into his biography in advance of our phone chat, it was no shock to learn that the Lake Street Dive drummer and co-founder’s musical roots stretch all the way back into his childhood. But serendipitous- ly hearing a firsthand account about a moment of memorable artistry from someone’s youth? That’s gold. In many years of interviewing musicians, actors, artists, and authors, I’ve never stumbled across such an anecdote from a personal friend who also knows my interview subject. My buddy—as it happens, another Michael—celebrated his post-doc- toral freedom with a summer road trip around the country. We met up during his Chicago stop, and when I told him I’d be writing about Lake Street Dive, his eyes lit up. Believe it or not, the two Mikes went to high school together in the Philadelphia suburb of Marple Township, PA. My Mike described a performance by Calabrese in the school talent show that made a lasting impression. Already demonstrating a keen sense for percussion and a flair for show- manship, teenage Calabrese unfurled a deconstructed act: He tore into a drum solo while someone else came on stage and, piece by piece, slowly re- moved his drum set. “It has stuck with me for 17 years,” my friend told me with a grin. Naturally, I couldn’t resist sharing the story with Calabrese, who responded with a hearty laugh. “There’s nothing I love more than making an impression on someone,” he says. “I’m surprised he remembers that! I look back on that with a bit of embarrassment, personally, because it’s sooo very dramatic. But clearly it worked!” Later in our conversation, Calabrese mused about his teenage self, lessons learned, and his musical evolution. “I was actually pretty cocksure, as many 16- or 17-year-olds could be,” he says. (Presumably it was the good kind of assuredness, the kind that leads one to take artistic risks, like holding the stage with a vanishing drum kit!) “I was a big fish, musically speaking, back in the day. Eventually, through fear and insecurity, I lost a little bit of what younger Mike had. Looking back, I think I wasted a lot of time trying to be something I didn’t need to be.” The reflection came from a ques- tion inspired by a track on Lake Street Dive’s latest album, the pop-jazz-R&B whirlwind Obviously . In “Nobody’s Stopping You Now,” a ballad written by Rachael Price and Bridget Kearney, who constitute half of the band, the women offer advice to themselves as teenagers. The song provides a great springboard to self-reflection: What advice would you give your younger self? (“I probably would tell myself to practice more,” Calabrese adds with a chuckle.) But there’s more than one angle to such a deep song, which Price and Kearney wrote in 2019. Two years later, a listener will probably find a whole new layer of meaning to one of the verses: Lay down girl and rest your weary head I know you’ll make it through somehow Dip your toes down deep into the riverbed ’Cause nobody’s stopping you now As with every other track on Ob- viously , this was written and recorded before COVID occupied any space in our collective consciousness, yet it aptly describes where the band is today. They’ve emerged on the other side, maintaining the group’s upward trajectory, even as everything changes, including their own lineup. Although the intended 2020 re- lease of the new album by Nonesuch Records became one of the pandem- ic’s countless casualties, Lake Street Dive burst into the nation’s gradual reopening with fervor, making spring appearances (still from the safety of a remote studio) on everything from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to The Ellen DeGeneres Show to NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts . Meanwhile, their album and the first single made a splash on the Billboard charts, hitting career highs for the band. For long- time fans and new converts alike, Ob- viously provides the upbeat medicine that this moment calls for. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 13