Acclaimed indie band recalls Boston Calling act that left them starstruck
From meeting at Berklee College of Music to playing Boston Calling for the third time this year, renowned indie pop band Lucius has deep ties to Boston .
The band's members have gone from learning from famous musicians to working with them. Among Lucius' biggest collaborators include John Prine, Mavis Staples and Brandi Carlile.
But of all the music legends that Lucius has worked with, lead singers Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe said another artist truly left them starstruck. And that incident happened at none other than Boston Calling 10 years ago.
"We were really excited because Tenacious D was playing," Wolfe told MassLive, recalling when she and Laessig learned that the comedy rock duo was performing at the festival back in 2015.
"We're really big Tenacious D fans," Wolfe said. "We don't get starstruck easily, I feel like. And we've sung with a lot of people."
The duo were told they were going to meet actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass, who make up Tenacious D, in their dressing room. When Laessig and Wolfe got there, they froze.
"They started singing about 'Tenucious' and we can be 'Tenucious,'" Wolfe recalled. "They sang this whole song and they were like, 'all right, now it's your turn.' And Holly and I were like jaws on the floor. We were just totally taken aback."
While Wolfe regrets not being able to sing in front of her idols, the singer added that meeting Tenacious D "was a treasured moment" and something "I'll never forget."
Now Lucius will pick their jaws up off the floor when the Grammy-nominated band plays its latest record, an 11-track self-titled album, on the Blue Stage at 4:40 p.m. on Saturday, May 24.
"I think it'll be really special," Wolfe said. "I hope that it connects with people and we're just excited to play it live."
Laessig added that Lucius loves the challenge of trying to win people over at music festivals, such as Boston Calling.
"I think the interesting thing about festivals is that it's not your crowd, necessarily, because they're there to see a bunch of artists and maybe they're not there to see you at all. Maybe they don't even know who you are," she said. "So you're getting to play for completely new faces and ears."
Wolfe and Laessig met while studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In fact, Wolfe's first friend that she made in her first-year orientation group was Laessig's roommate
"We sort of became like a little girl group. A little gang of us," Wolfe told MassLive while the band was visiting Berklee last month.
During a night of off-campus underage drinking while hanging out on the roof of Wolfe's apartment at 80 Fenway, the duo started talking about their musical influences that included the likes of Sam Cooke, David Bowie and Phil Spector.
Once they realized that they had the same admiration for old-school soul and rock and roll, Laessig and Wolfe decided to meet the next day and organize a show in Berklee's cafeteria.
That show never happened. Instead, Laessig and Wolfe started writing songs that would eventually be part of Lucius' catalogue. They even wrote one of the band's earliest songs, called "Get on Going," at Laessig's apartment near the Whole Foods on Westland Avenue in Back Bay.
Wolfe and Laessig also recalled major artists such as John Mayer, James Taylor, Lalah Hathaway and Tower of Power bestowing their knowledge onto Berklee students like themselves. This somewhat served as a precursor for the band, who's extensive list of collaborators ranges from pop megastar Harry Styles and R&B icon John Legend to rock legends Grace Potter, Ozzy Osbourne, Sheryl Crow, Joni Mitchell and Ringo Starr.
Lucius was most recently featured on Starr's last album "Look Up," which was released this past January. While Wolfe and Laessig unfortunately did not meet the former Beatle during the recording process, it was still an honor for them to be included on the project.
"Hearing it back that day right after singing it, hearing it back in the room was very cool," Laessig said.
Laessig and Wolfe officially formed Lucius in 2007 after moving to Ditmas Park in Brooklyn. The duo self-released "Songs from the Bromley House" in 2009, before recruiting Dan Molad and Pete Lalish. The group became a four-piece band by 2011 and released its debut EP in 2012.
Lucius has since released four more studio albums, earned three Grammy Award nominations and appeared on multiple programs including NPR's "Tiny Desk" , "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and "Late Night with Seth Meyers."
The band's music — which has been praised by dozens of media outlets including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and Paste — has been featured in several television shows such as "Grey's Anatomy" and "Catfish: The TV Show."
However, most people people discovered Lucius when the band's song "Until We Get There" was featured in season 2, episode 24 of the popular series, "New Girl."
"It was a big deal and a lot of people discovered us through that show," Wolfe said.
After Lucius brings its multi-purpose sound to Boston Calling, the band will appear at additional festivals and play more shows this summer.
A full list of upcoming concerts can be found on Lucius' website .
More on Boston Calling's Local lineup
Read the original article on MassLive .
