Lake Street Dive
Making their first trip to Alaska, the four musicians in Lake Street Dive got together while attending the New England Conservatory in Boston, the nation's oldest independent school of music. Originally, the quartet -- Rachael Price (vocals), Mike Olson (trumpet, guitar), Bridget Kearney (bass -- of the upright variety) and Mike Calabrese (drums) -- planned to be a free-form country band, playing an improvised, avant-garde style.
That didn't quite work out and the band soon adopted its modern sound.
Over the phone from California, Kearney described that sound as Motown meets British Invasion and cited soul music and the Beatles as influences in the band's creative process.
"I think the thing that's under all that is the fact that we all are improvisers, and that's kind of where we started playing music -- what we went to school for was jazz," she said.
"So, the songs that we're writing can be coming out of soul or rock music, but the way that we play them is always with a sort of air of improvisation," Kearny continued. "It's very different every show and I think it's one of the exciting parts about seeing the band."
A quick YouTube search reveals the group playing in seemingly random locations - a kitchen, on an apartment's front steps, in the middle of a windy field.
"Those things, for as much as they're not pre-planned and not super well-recorded and produced, they capture the live energy of just the four of us playing together," Kearney said. "I think the fact that they're spontaneous and low key just adds to our performance."
And the story behind the band name? It's a reference to Lake Street in Minneapolis, where guitarist and trumpeter Olson grew up and home to a number of bars where bands play regularly.
After four albums, including last year's "Live at the Lizard Lounge," Lake Street Dive has become known for its own peppy live shows that feature a mix of original material and covers, ranging from the likes of George Michael to Hall and Oates and have even gone as far as dressing up as ABBA and Fleetwood Mac for Halloween videos.
Cover songs haven't shown up on any of their albums thus far, but that's about to change, Kearney said. The band plans to release an EP of cover tunes in June.
The Expendables
For those who prefer a band with West Coast and Warped Tour sensibilities, The Expendables come to UAA less than a week later. The reggae-rock outfit formed in 1997, mostly composed of friends who had gone to school with one other. Geoff Weers (guitars, vocals), Adam Patterson (drums, vocals), Raul Bianchi (lead guitar) and Ryan DeMars (bass) make up the Santa Cruz, Calif., group, which has put together six albums since 2000.
Musically, the band is comfortable alternating between mellow reggae sounds and more aggressive, metal-inspired guitar riffs. Sometimes, such shifts happen within a single song.
The Expendables are in the midst of their annual Winter Blackout Tour, and as is the case with many bands these days, the group finds itself relying more on touring due to the shifting music industry.
"The live performances are what make your band stand out, and that's what we do best," Weers told the Tahoe (Calif.) Daily Tribune earlier this month. "Nowadays, you can make awesome music with virtually no money."
Next for the band is getting back into the studio sometime this year to work on an acoustic album. And while The Expendables have been together for more than a decade, Weers told the Tribune there are no signs of fatigue from within the group.
"I think every musician has that time when they say to themselves, 'What the hell am I doing?' and get in those situations where they can't leave and are fed up with it," he said, "With these guys, I've never really dealt with that."
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