Feb. 17, 2012: Lake Street Dive concert

Friday, Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m.
Fine Arts Building, Room 150
Tickets: $3 advance/$5 at the door for UAA students (with valid UAA ID taking 6 or more credits), $15 advance/$20 at the door for general admission

How is it that something so unlikely can also be so infectious, so naturally exhilarating? Pulling in familiar elements and irreverently scrambling and recombining them, Lake Street Dive are at once jazz-schooled, DIY-motivated and classically pop-obsessed. Beginning with catchy songs that are by turns openhearted and wryly inquisitive, this northeastern quartet proceeds to inject them with an irresistible blend of abandon and precision. Composed of drummer Mike Calabrese, bassist Bridget Kearney (winner of the 2006 John Lennon Songwriting Contest), vocalist Rachael Price and trumpet-wielding guitarist Mike Olson, Lake Street Dive encompasses a myriad of possibilities within its members' collective experiences, and the resultant music is a vivid, largely acoustic, groove-driven strain of indie-pop.

Lake Street Dive makes the most of pop music virtues: solid, evocative song craft, propulsive grooves and Price's disarming, forthright vocals. However, it's a personal strain of pop that is refracted through the band members' rich backgrounds: a sinewy Motown bass line is reborn with woody heft on Kearney's upright, Calabrese's drumming mixes timekeeping with more adventurous jazz-inflected outbursts, Olsen's nimble trumpet is an unexpectedly warm counterpoint to Price's singing. It all makes for a sound with familiar roots, but with a slant that is entirely their own.

Tickets can be purchased online at uaatix.com or in person at the UAA Student Union Info Desk. For questions about tickets, call (907) 786-1204.

For more information about this show, please contact Student Activities at (907) 786-1219 or events@uaa.alaska.edu.