In today’s resurgent funk scene, few bands carry anywhere near the influence of New England-based funkateers Lettuce. Their music very clearly pulls influence from the forefathers of funk (Herbie Hancock, James Brown, Tower of Power, etc.) but never fails to push and stretch the genre to a new, exciting place with each successive album. And while Lettuce may not be a household name (at least as far as music goes), they certainly aren’t lacking a following. Their name is synonymous with a good time and is known to jazz savants and festival goers alike. Lettuce has been around since the 90’s, but they’ve taken off in a serious way in the last 6 years or so, coinciding with something of a funk revival in both the Jazz and jam band scenes. Each of their albums has proved more popular than the last, so when they recently released their new EP, Mt. Crushmore, and announced a fresh tour passing through New Orleans (aka Funktown USA) you can imagine the hype it generated amongst their local fan base. 
The show was held at The Republic in New Orleans, a venue rather unfamiliar to Lettuce. There’s nothing particularly wrong with The Republic, it’s a decent venue and I’m sure it’s been a perfect setting for many a show. The Republic does not, however have the same carrying capacity, viewing angles, cool factor, or reasonable pricing of other NOLA venues where you’d normally find Lettuce performing. The only one of these deficiencies that became an issue when Lettuce rolled into town was the lack of floor space. Lettuce is a band known for their electrifying live shows filled with wild fans unashamedly dancing. When every square inch of the venue is packed with eager viewers, then without choice everyone loses the option to dance and instead stands in each other’s personal space for a few hours. And let me tell you, it physically hurts to not dance when you have “Jesus” Coomes on the bass and local soul hero Nigel Hall on the keys and vocals. What do I see as the best way to avoid this issue? Simply don’t sell a such a ridiculous (and probably dangerous) number of tickets.
Aside from my obvious gripes with the choice of venue, the show nevertheless failed to disappoint. Performing with neither Eric Krasno (guitar) nor Neal Evans (keyboard/organ), who are presumably touring with Lettuce’s sister band, Soulive, they still managed to stage an all-star crew of funky humans. New Orleans native Nigel Hall (performing with the band since 2011) filled the void left by Evans on the keys while still offering up his infectious vocals. The rest of the on-stage band consisted of Lettuce old-timers “Jesus” Coomes on the bass, Ryan Zoidis and Benny Bloom on the horns, Adam “Schmeans” on the guitar, and Adam Deitch on the drums. 
The set list was a satisfying mix of tunes from the freshly released Mt. Crushmore and classic Lettuce bangers that everyone could get down to. The beginning of the show started with tunes such as The Force that showcase Lettuce’s trademark: powerful, in your face, almost galloping funk with hip-hop inspired rhythmic sensibility. This very successfully got the crowd in a mood to dance despite the lack of personal space. As is seemingly per usual with the last few shows I’ve been to, the meat of the performance consisted of some of their newer, spacier material that dips into other genres. But as also seems to be a habit of theirs lately, the show ended with a slew of up-tempo, super hyped funk to get the crowd even more loose and dance-happy. This was capped by a cut-time performance of SQUADLIVE (a classic from their first album, Outta Here) that just about made the crowd (myself included) lose their goddamn minds. Then that was it, they left the stage and did not return. The crowd begged and cheered for more, but Lettuce does what Lettuce wants, and they’d just given it all they had on the stage and felt no need to return. That’s part of their magic, though. It wouldn’t have mattered if they played another song (or even four or five more, for that matter), they will always leave you wanting more, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.