Concert Review: Ra Ra Riot
by Gil Turetsky
The first time I heard Ra Ra Riot was on the radio
about three years ago driving to a friend’s house in the summer. I heard “Can
You Tell,” their first single off of their first album, “The Rhumb Line.” For a
while, I thought it was the new Vampire Weekend single (turns out the two bands
are actually pretty tight). When I found out that it was Ra Ra Riot, I checked
out “The Rhumb Line” and became a fan for it’s mix of Indie-Poppy vocals, cool
bass lines, upbeat and almost Reggae-influenced drums, and, last but not least,
violin and cello.
I was lucky enough to see Ra Ra Riot at All Points
West 2009 when The Core, in conjunction with Toyota’s Free Yr Radio, got to
broadcast live and do interviews from the three day festival—we were the
official college radio station of All Points West. Even though the venue,
Liberty State Park, was muddy, it was drizzling out, and the sound wasn’t too
great, I was still impressed by Ra Ra Riot’s energy and how all the band members
came together to put on a great show. It wasn’t exactly a “riot,” but there was
definitely ample energy. I enjoyed it.
Last month, Ra Ra Riot released their second
album, “The Orchard.” But you wouldn’t really be able to tell that from the set
they played at Rutgers’ Cook Campus Center on Thursday, November 11th,
2010. They played a mix of old and new, but they buried their new songs from
“The Orchard” in a set that was dominated by songs from “The Rhumb Line.” The
crowd was composed of Ra Ra Riot fans of all different walks, and they cheered
from time to time, nodded their heads, and clapped. But you could tell the
energy just wasn’t there. Maybe after touring for so long after releasing their
last album, the “job” of being musicians became just that: a job instead of
something fun. RRR’s drummer, Gabriel Duquette, was wearing headphones the whole
time—maybe playing to a click track, maybe to soften some of the loudness—but
either way, it showed the detachment of the band from the energy they could have
put into their live set. Most of the movement on stage was either a band member
taking a step forward or backwards or switching from one instrument to another.
The highlights of the set were “Oh, La” and “Too,
Too, Too Fast” off of “The Rhumb Line” and “You and I Know” off of “The
Orchard,” when cellist Alexandra Lawn chilled things out and took over the vocal
role. The most energy was at the end of the show, when they played “Dying is
Fine” after an awkwardly short encore cheer. During this last song, Wes, RRR’s
vocalist, pumped some energy into the crowd by moving around onstage and high-fiving
the audience.
Ra Ra Riot did their “job” to a certain extent:
they sounded like a professional band, they sounded like their recording. They
can pull off their songs live, and make them sound as good or better than their
recordings. But that isn’t all it takes to put on a good live show. The audience
at the Cook Campus Center was expecting more energy from the young, catchy band.
Sadly, it took until the end of their short 45-minute set for them to get any.
