Thu Sep 12, 9:00 PM - Fri Sep 13, 1:00 AM
468 Riverside Dr, Asheville, NC 28801

Community: Asheville

Description

Lettuce Adam Deitch: drums, percussion Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff: guitar Erick “Jesus” Coomes: bass

Event Details

Ryan Zoidis: alto, baritone and tenor sax, Korg X-911
Eric “Benny” Bloom: trumpet, horns

Nigel Hall: vocals, Hammond B-3, Rhodes, clavinet, keyboards

LETTUCE is (a) the prime ingredient in a salad, (b) a slang for cash, (c) a green herb that can be
smoked, (d) a genre-busting six-member funk/jazz/soul/jam/psychedelic/hip-hop/art-
rock/ambient/ avant-garde/experimental collective formed in 1992 by four alumni of the
prestigious Berklee College Of Music, or (e) all of the above.
If you answered “e,” then you’re on to the ever-changing musical palette and all-inclusive goals
of LETTUCE’s sixth studio album, Elevate, and its ongoing re-interpretation of the band’s name
as “Let Us.” In their earliest days as students, they would roam the cities of the Northeast, and
implore others to “Let Us play.” Starting with their 2002 debut album, the phrase has been
affixed to their first four albums, as in (Let Us) Outta Here (2002), (Let Us) Rage! (2008), (Let
Us) Fly! (2012) and (Let Us) Crush (2015). Elevate (2019) is the band’s first studio album since
2016’s Mt. Crushmore and the follow-up to its 2017 live effort, Witches Stew.
Recorded at Colorado Sound outside of Denver, near the home of New York transplants and
band co-founders, guitarist Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff and percussionist Adam Deitch, with
legendary engineer Russ Elevado (D’Angelo, The Roots, Erykah Badu), Elevate shows
LETTUCE touching on its past while moving full force into the future. The band explores its
funk roots in the Tower of Power like punch of “Ready to Live” (the cover of a song by Cold
Blood’s Lydia Pense), the Prince-like swagger of “Royal Highness” and the OG blues-soul of
“Love Is Too Strong,” while expanded trip-hop sounds of the space age audio-scapes like
“Trapezoid,” “Gang 10” and “Purple Cabbage” show the influence of sax player Ryan Zoidis’
Korg X-911 synths and Nigel Hall’s Rhodes keyboards.
“This album definitely stretches the boundaries,” says chief composer/percussionist Deitch,
whose chance meeting with co-founder “Shmeeans” while 16-year-olds at a summer camp
before their freshmen year of college proved momentous. “The idea was to keep exploring the
different areas of funk and hip-hop beats, then w

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