Maybe it was the genuine demeanor of the band or the peppy set they played, whatever the reason, seeing felt good and gave the feeling of watching a group of friends play together. Remember those college parties when a friend’s band would play and it never really mattered how good they were because they just enjoyed playing?
Lead singer Wesley Miles bounced around the stage with bassist Mathieu Santos, while cellist Alexandra Lawn and violinist Rebecca Zeller made their instruments sing by feverously sliding their elbows. Guitarist Milo Bonacci occasionally flashed a grin from his stoic continence as the band’s spirits seemed high with their attention clearly focused on the music. I have never seen musicians stand so close together on stage without tripping over each other.
The brief set may have barely passed an hour but the Syracuse-based Ra Ra Riot played a set chalk-full of hits from their three studio albums. “Dying is Fine” and “Can You Tell,” both off the “Rhumb Line” album drew the biggest reaction from the crowd as they were engaged from the moment the house lights went down. The band seemed focused as they did not honor any requests, a sound decision, especially after an audience member yelled out for “Osaka Loop Line,” an odd synthesizer infused song off of Miles’ side project, “Discovery,” with Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend.
The band sounded very good, as Miles vocals’ were crisp and the violin and cello both popped. Save for Lawn’s meek vocals, the band almost sounded too good and I would be curious to see how their set and demeanor changes according to their locale. Still, Ra Ra Riot remains a rarity in the select crowd of acts that sounds as good, if not better, live than they do through a stereo.
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Greg Stieber is a Denver freelance writer and regular contributor to Reverb.
