The Dip Deliver at Milwaukee’s Turner Hall
Turner Hall Ballroom, Milwaukee, Wisconsin | Tuesday, June 13
The Dip cruised into Milwaukee Tuesday, June 13+ fresh off a Monday night show opening for Michael Franti & Spearhead at Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield and a Saturday gig at Bonfire Music Fest in the Driftless Music Gardens near Yuba. It was show 30 of their current tour which kicked off Feb. 15 in Kansas City. Tuesday’s Turner Hall Ballroom show provided an opportunity to perfect their act before returning to their Vacation. Vacation! Tour and more headlining shows in July.
The Dip have found their niche in creating pop-tinged soul with hints of rock and jazz. Look up any “retro” playlist on Spotify, and The Dip is bound to be nestled between St. Paul and the Broken Bones and Greyhounds. It seems there is a revival of sounds from the late 1950s and 1960s being driven by young white males.
It’s now been 10 years since drummer Jarred Katz, bassist Mark Hunter, and lead singer/guitarist Tom Eddy met while studying jazz at the University of Washington and created The Dip by adding fellow Huskies Jacob Lundgren on lead guitar and the Honeynut Horns — Brennan Carter, Evan Smith, and Levi Gillis.
Early gigs consisted of house parties, and that atmosphere permeates their shows to this day. And why not, Eddy has pretty frat-boy looks to make the ladies swoon, while The Dip’s grooves get toes tapping and hips swaying. Their shows are simply — “fun.”
The boys kicked off the night with “Atlas,” from their pre-pandemic 2019 release “The Dip Delivers.” An aptly titled album, The Dip does deliver. “Atlas” is a great show starter as Hunter’s bass sets the rhythm for the bright and punctuating horns of Carter, Smith, and Gillis. It is a slow simmer, however, and a perfect way to prepare the crowd for the jump up and hit the road “Vacation” and “Crickets” — which is anything but quiet. Those two tracks from the most recent album — 2022’s “Sticking With It,” were followed by the closer from 2015’s self-titled debut “Ready to Go.”
By this time of the show, the band and the audience are ready to go. To this point, we’ve gotten a good taste of what The Dip delivers, and that is not just fun, but solid musical execution. The Dip is a band in the truest sense. Each member plays an integral role in the whole, and yet each is given multiple moments to shine throughout the set. So just as things begin to heat up, they throw a curve.
“Ready to Go” creeps in slow and sultry, seducing the listener who has already tasted that up-tempo high and is jonesing for the next hit. And by the end of the song, it satisfies.
The Dip has three full-length albums under their belts along with two instrumental EPs — 2016’s “Won’t Be Coming Back” and 2020’s “The Dip Plays It Cool.” The Turner show found the band hitting something from each with glimpses of what’s next with a couple of new titles, including “Love Direction” — which Eddy says is “about being in a relationship, you have to pull over and ask for directions sometimes.”
From my perspective, the night reached its first climax with a rousing rendition of “Apollonia” and a second with another new song (about a bar fight, according to Eddy), “Shit Goes Bad.” If this song is any indication of what’s to come from The Dip, we should all be excited. Tuesday’s rendition was a perfect mix of catchy danceable pop interspersed with jazzy instrumental solos, suitable for a night on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. “Sure Don’t Miss You,” arguably the band’s most recognizable song to date, followed immediately on its heels and ended with a crowd sing-along.
As the band left the stage, chants of “One more song!” quickly began and morphed into “Two more songs!” But one would have to do, as The Dip returned to settle the crowd with the soft and tender “Adeline” before bidding farewell.
See the Full Gallery of the Night Here!
If you happened to capture any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see.
Set List
Atlas
Vacation
Crickets
Ready to Go
Slow Sipper
Fill My Cup
Sleep on It
Won’t Be Coming Back
Love Direction
Anyway
State Line
Apollonia
Instrumental Interlude
Real Contender
Shit Goes Bad
Sure Don’t Miss You
Encore: Adeline
FUTURE TOUR DATES
JULY 5, 2023
The Rockaway Hotel
New York, NY
JULY 6, 2023
River & Blues
New York, NY
JULY 7, 2023
The Stephen Talkhouse
Amagansett, NY
JULY 16, 2023
Levitt Pavilion
Denver, CO
Support: Joey Dosik
JULY 18, 2023
Hot Summer Nights
Vail, CO
JULY 28, 2023
Calgary Folk Music Festival
Calgary, AB
AUG. 11, 2023
Outside Lands
San Francisco, CA
AUG. 12, 2023
Burnaby Blues & Roots Festival
Burnaby, Canada
AUG. 26, 2023
Big Grove Brewery
Iowa City, IA
SEPT. 2, 2023 – SEP 3, 2023
Bumbershoot Festival
Seattle, WA
SEPT. 9, 2023
Moon River Music Festival
Chattanooga, TN
OCT. 26, 2023 – OCT 29, 2023
Suwannee Hulaween
Live Oak, FL
Opener:
Ben Mulwana
Set List
Embozi
Lies of the Devil
Letters to You
Faith
Candy Floss
Home
Stupid Love
The Outside
