July 22 2025 Deerfield, MA
Seldom can a great night of music be as perfectly coupled with beautiful weather as on this night. The heat had broken, and it was an ideal summer night in central Massachusetts. We settled into chairs that we brought at the Summer stage of Treehouse Brewing and saw various friends walking around.
Neal Francis took the stage and performed a variety of funk laden rock songs with a four piece band. I had seen him a couple of years ago at the Wormtown festival, and he is taking advantage of the attention that he is getting from American audiences. The players complimented his style well, which is a mixture of funk, compositional rock, and a bit of quirkiness. Psychedelic swirls with vocal harmonies, sunshine, laughter, smiles- an amazing combination to get the evening started.
Right where I’m meant to be
Changes
Cant stand the rain
Broken glass.
Can’t get enough
One last time
Bnylv
150 more times
It’s been years since I have seen Lucius. I fell in love with them in the WildeWoman days, and have been fasinated with them ever since. My only time seeing them was at Bonnaroo in 2016. The band is comprised of Dan Molad on drums and vocals and Peter Lalish on guitar and vocals. There was another player who played mostly bass but also guitar and lent his hand in vocals, as well. But the enter of the band are vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, and both also perform on keyboards and contribute occasional drum parts as well.
Wolfe and Laessig are the center of the band, with a vocal style that is not similar to any other band you’ve ever heard. They do not sing in harmony for moments or for effect, the entire show is a vocal duet with the two of them singing simultaneously to amazing effect. Harmony isn’t the right word, Unison isn’t it, either. Their voices join in a way in which there are two voices acting as one. It is as if a laser has split a single voice into two parts. The timbre, the tone, the everything are so perfectly intertwined it is often difficult or impossible to tell which of them is singing which part. Perhaps because they are not vocal parts, but a symbiotic pairing of their voices that is inseparable.
The songs are lush, bringing in elements of modern folk, disco, funk, orchestral prog and more to form a sound that is uniquely their own. I don’t know why, but their music sounds like the future. It isn’t pining back to Laurel Canyon, they aren’t trying to be Crosby Stills and Nash. They aren’t trying to be anybody- they are creating art. Musical compositions spotlighting their voices but not only their voices but an entire mission of what music is to them, and can be for all. Neal Francis returned to play keys and sing along with the band for the song Genevieve toward the end of the set.
From the video channel of Marian Starkey
Many of the selections were from the band’s self titled album which was released this year. But there were selections from throughout their discography. After a sonic journey that picked us all up and brought us to the horizons of what we now to be music, and what we know to be Lucius, they left the stage only to return very quickly.
They spent a good five minutes conversing with the audience. They brought out a mailbox that contained notes from their fans and read them, expressing deep gratitude for the opportunity to perform. They have a genuineness that comes through, beautifully.
A single old fashioned microphone was set up at the front of the stage and all five band members gathered around it to perform the three song encore. The final song, Everybody Hurts, a cover of the famed REM song illustrated the duality that is Lucius. The band is so different and so genre stretching that to hear them do a classic song was almost jarring. But they lulled us back to Luciusland through their interpretation, feel, and delivery of the song.
From the video channel of Dale Martin
Final Days
Gold Rush
Do It All for You
Hallways
Stranger Danger
24
Tempest
Joyride
Nothing Ordinary
Old Tape
Mad Love
Dusty Trail
Lucy
Genevieve
E:
Two of Us on the Run
Impressions
Everybody Hurts (REM Cover.)
From the video channel of Dale Martin
Upcoming shows at Treehouse Brewing Sunmer Stage:
July 23 Trampled by Turtles
July 24 Jeff Tweedy
July 28 Lukas Nelson with Payton Howie
July 29 Flipturn with Joe P
July 30 Drive by Truckers and Deer Tick
August 4 and 5 Dark Star Orchestra
August 07 The Wood Brothers
August 11 Fruit Bats with Minor Moon
August 12 the Dead South with the Sadies
August 14 Chase Rice
August 18 Toad the Wet Sprocket with KT Tunstall and Sixpence None the Richer
August 18 Watchhouse with Two Runner
August 26 Andy Grammer
August 27 Ani DiFranco with Hurray for the Riff Raff
August 238 Dawes with Fantastic Cat and Jake Manzi
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