Lettuce Plays NOLA Doubleheader: Jazz Fest Fairgrounds Debut & Joy Theater RAGE!FEST Finale [B.Getz on L4LM]
Photo: Tim McGuire – Lettuce makes Jazz Fest debut, New Orleans, LA, 4/30/26
Every spring for nearly a quarter century, Lettuce has proven a reliable staple in New Orleans during Jazz Fest. The psychedelic funk-hop institution is perennially celebrated for bombastic late-night NOLA throwdowns like their annual RAGE!FEST fiestas—and before that anchoring the star-studded Royal Family Ball series. Across lineup evolutions and eras, Lettuce has long been lovingly—and authentically—embraced by the Crescent City’s storied funk culture; its conquerors, scions, and torchbearers have welcomed the sextet into their bosom.
However, despite deep local ties—keyboardist/vocalist Nigel Hall has called NOLA home for over a decade, and trumpeter Eric “Benny” Bloom also lived there for several years, not to mention super-bands with regional royalty like Dr. Klaw—a Lettuce set at the illustrious New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the granddaddy of ‘em all, remained an elusive milestone.
That is, until 2026. This was the year the group would finally get asked to the big dance. Better yet, on Thursday April 30th, the boys would play a double header. By day, they’d cross the Jazz Fest Fairgrounds rubicon at long last, then chase that hard-earned glory later the same night with another two-set RAGE!FEST riot at the Joy Theater.
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“After all these years, getting the official invitation to perform at Jazz Fest truly means the world to us,” guitarist Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff told L4LM by phone, in the tailwind of their big day in the Big Easy. “It was an honor, and so important to our band.”
Throughout their career, Lettuce has always considered NOLA a home away from home, forging familial relationships to make music—and history—together. These feelings have been mutual and reciprocal since the band’s earliest days visiting the Bayou.
Before Dumpstaphunk even existed, Ivan Neville sat in with Lettuce at their very first New Orleans show (5/1/03 at the now-defunct warehouse venue TwiRoPa). Ever since, LETT has welcomed New Orleans’ heaviest funk hitters to their stage time and again: George Porter Jr., Cyril Neville, Big Chief Donald Harrison, Ian Neville, Big Sam, and the late Nick Daniels III, among a plethora of other killer NOLA players, have all gotten busy with the band on stages near and far.
In January 2011, Lettuce had the privilege to back the late, great Dr. John for a tune at the OG Brooklyn Bowl. Eight years later at RAGE!FEST 2019, the band invited the K9 Brass Band from the city’s Booker T. Washington High School for an unprecedented collaboration at the Joy Theater.
On Thursday April 30th, the sextet made their long-awaited debut at the hallowed Fairgrounds racetrack on the sprawling Festival Stage. Slotted just before scene titans/Jazz Fest veterans Widespread Panic, the performance represented a symbolic achievement that Lettuce described on social media as an honor “twenty years in the making.”
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Band members’ cell phones rang early that morning, management calling with last-minute schedule changes: approaching thunderstorms and swirling winds caused the Jazz Fest brass to unfortunately truncate the day’s programming by axing some acts across all the stages. Lettuce’s long-awaited festival set was gracefully spared, albeit shifted from 2:45 p.m. to 12:15 p.m.
“I got home from my gig at around 5 in the morning,” recalled drummer Adam Deitch, referring to his late-night set with Deitch, Teitel, Fribush (DTF) at The Rabbit Hole, “and by 9:00 a.m. I was on my way to finally play the Jazz Fest fairgrounds with Lettuce. So when they moved us up, it turned into almost a no-sleep situation. When we made it onstage, a sea of people were out there waiting for us, and that felt so amazing.”
Veteran Jazz Festers and hardcore Lettuce funkateers seemed relatively unfazed by the inclement weather or the resulting developments. In spite of the unexpected earlier start (whether performing or attending, any fewer hours of sleep during Jazz Fest can cost you dearly), sizable throngs of revved-up revelers turned out on the soggy Festival Stage field clad in rain slickers and boots, toting umbrellas at high noon. Thousands of fans simply would not be denied the opportunity to share this monumental moment in Lettucefunk history.
“You realize these things like weather and nature are out of your control, so you just gotta roll with it,” said Smirnoff, whose father flew in for his first Jazz Fest experience. “And we got lucky; the Jazz Fest gods shined down upon us, and we were able to play our full set.”
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At 12:20, the musicians took their places spread out on the humongous Festival Stage and swiftly dropped into “Blast Off”, the reliable banger from 2008’s RAGE!, setting an assertive tone and buoyant bounce for a resilient and ultimately rewarding hour-plus of Lettuce.
Local fave Nigel Hall cut through the cumulus clouds with panache on a stirring interpolation of Keni Burke’s “Rising to the Top” culled from last December’s magnificent Cook—complete with a mesmerizing trumpet solo from Eric “Benny” Bloom that practically begged for a single ray of sunshine.
An ambitious version of fan favorite “Phyllis” (Crush, 2015) was a clinic in full-band, layered psychedelic voyaging and saw the sun finally rear its brilliant shine on the still-swelling and soaked contingent that had steadily congregated.
Lettuce – “Phyllis” – 4/30/26
[Video: B. Nichols]
With a nod to yesteryear as well as a beloved pioneer (The JB’s trombonist Fred Wesley was onsite performing at a different stage that afternoon), Lettuce dialed up “JB’s Squadlive” to close out their daytime affair. A primordial cut mined from 2002 debut LP Outta Here and recently given somewhat of a more-peas makeover, the blistering funk showcase featured screaming alto sax from Ryan Zoidis.
After the set, some band members were clocked taking advantage of much-ballyhooed local cuisines at the fest. Deitch headed for a bowl of famed Crawfish Monica pasta, while Shmeeans and his dad darted towards soft-shell crab po-boys and gumbo. Once sufficiently fed, the fellas then retreated to rest and recharge before the annual RAGE!FEST kicked off in just a precious few hours.
Trust, these cats needed every last wink of shut-eye they could muster up. Thursday’s Lettuce double-header (Day 8 for wire-to-wire Jazz Festers) offered the final Jazz Fest performances in a whirlwind week that saw individual LETT members fan out into myriad side projects and unique-to-Jazz Fest engagements til the wee-est of hours, day in and night out all over this great city.
Some Jazz Fest 2026 side trips of note included Nigel Hall’s fantastic collaboration with Butcher Brown Big Band at Cafe Istanbul to kick off first Thursday night and Eric “Benny” Bloom reprising his always-tremendous Crusaders tribute set at Chickie Wah Wah the following Monday. Bassist Erick “Maverick” Coomes teamed up with older brother Tycoon for a hip-hop-scented improv sesh at d.b.a., and Ryan Zoidis was again tapped for the all-star superjam tradition that is the Daze Between Band‘s annual Wednesday night shindig at a sold-out Tipitina’s.
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Predictably, Adam Deitch could be found doin’ it to death with assorted combos almost every night of the week. The superhuman stretch was punctuated by his massive 50th birthday jam on April 26th at The Broadside. A celebration for the ages that welcomed ex-Lettuce guitarist/co-founder Eric Krasno, ever-present local legend Ivan Neville, bass maestro Oteil Burbridge, among a smattering of other peers for a raucous joyride with Deitch at the wheel.
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On Thursday evening, the rain subsided for a time as fans filed into the Joy Theater in the heart of Canal Street for Lettuce’s perennial party, RAGE!FEST. Certainly gassed from a week of round-the-clock musical mania, yet riding the natural high of their fairgrounds debut earlier that day, the sextet strapped in for another two-set journey through their seemingly boundaryless styles.
New Orleans-based visual artist Optic Tempo was once again tapped to manifest mind-bending environments; he bathed the space in kaleidoscopic colorways and percolating geometry, transforming the Joy Theater into an interplanetary goodvibe zone.
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Just after 10 p.m., Lettuce mounted the stage, loaded up the Voltron vehicle, dug in and somehow found another gear to deliver a scintillating evening that thoroughly satiated the assembled massive. The first set spotlighted some fresh Cook material: opener “Gold Tooth” was a thumping sledgehammer that showed little mercy off rip; ethereal album closer “Ghosts of Yest” was nothing short of hypnotic, with Shmeeans slipping in a sublime D’Angelo quote for any heads still mourning the loss.
Lettuce – RAGE!FEST – Joy Theater – New Orleans, LA – 4/30/26
Late in their first frame, the now-firing squad welcomed a longtime LETT collaborator in vocalist Alecia Chakour (Tedeschi Trucks Band) to join them for three songs. Once a mainstay during the band’s Fly touring cycle, Chakour connected with Nigel Hall for a gripping version of Bill Withers’ “For My Friend”, unleashing a duet of spine-tingling harmonics and thrilling energetic chemistry, and bringing the set to an emotional crescendo.
“Nigel and Alecia have a certain kind of connection, and their voices—the vibrato and harmonies—work so well together.” said Adam Deitch, lighting up while remembering the collab. “They’re still such good friends, so that makes it even more special when we come back together like that.”
Lettuce With Alecia Chakour – “For My Friend” (Bill Withers) – 4/30/26
[Video: Tiny Rager NYC]
After a brief intermission, Lettuce returned to the stage visibly jazzed, with a battery inserted into their backs for the mission at hand. Second set blasted off with what Deitch called the band’s “national anthem,” the recharged band unspooling a focused yet frenzied rendition of the always electrifying “Madison Square”. TTB’s trumpet phenom Emannuel Echem soon hopped into the fray, going toe to toe with Eric “Benny” Bloom on the elastic rare-groove of “Pocket Change”.
A harrowing, diabolical romp through the sinister improv section of “Vamanos” nearly scared people straight—quite the feat in this heavily imbibed town. Soon, the divine Ms. Chakour reemerged onstage, this time with fellow vocalist Laneesha Randolph of Robert Randolph & the Family Band. Randolph has history with this krewe as well; both Shmeeans and Hall logged time touring with her in her brother’s groundbreaking gospel-groove outfit many moons ago.
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Both women coalesced to beautifully augment Nigel’s vocals on a surprise interpolation of RAMP’s “Daylight”. This dusty, crate-digger deep cut from 1977 provides the sample source for A Tribe Called Quest’s inescapable 1992 earworm “Bonita Applebum”, of which Shmeeans slipped in the trademark guitar riff lifted from Rotary Connection’s “Memory Band”.
Coomes’ sturdy bass work was weaving in tantric tandem with Deitch’s head-nod boom-bap. Add the pristine guest vocals on top, plus Bloom’s tasty trumpet solo, and the krewe presented a proper recipe to really cook with gas. The sum of these magical parts made for a minimalist gumbo: subtle tribute, cutty detour, and unforgettable collaboration that’s already been added to the voluminous list of Lettucefunk lagniappe in the city that care forgot.
For an appropriately euphoric encore, LETT plus the precious pair turned back the clock to bust out their forever-cherished reading of Curtis Mayfield‘s anthemic “Move On Up”. Nigel whipped folks into another frenzy, further tickling nostalgia bones one final time, and RAGE!FEST revelers kept on pushing from the still-teeming dance floor all the way out to Canal Street, before slowly disappearing into the Crescent City night.
Lettuce – RAGE!FEST – Joy Theater – New Orleans, LA – 4/30/26
[Video: frenchamerican]
Words: B.Getz