A band’s performance very much hinges on the energy of a crowd. If a crowd just isn’t into a show, the band’s performance subsequently suffers.
I don’t want to say this exactly happened to Ra Ra Riot Thursday night at Cat’s Cradle, but there were definitely moments when the crowd’s lack of enthusiasm translated on stage. This doesn’t necessarily mean the band failed to impress, in fact, their musicianship was a shining point of the evening and kept the show’s head above water. But there were times when the band just seemed to go through the motions, counting down the minutes until they could step off stage.
Factored in with their unique instrumentation — an electric violin and cello — the band possessed a handful of songs that got the otherwise lethargic crowd moving; unfortunately one of those songs, “Can You Discover?,” was that of the band Discovery; an indie electronic band formed of Ra Ra Riot frontman Wes Miles and Vampire Weekend keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij. Regardless of the sources, those few songs got things rocking in the Cradle and made me proud of the raucous dancers we have in this town.
I understand that Ra Ra Riot is still a fairly new act, thus many of their “fans” outside of their home state of New York will respond better to the “hits” than the rest of the band’s catalog. But this is a band that needs to be heard because quite frankly they’re really good. It’s just disappointing to see a packed house at Cat’s Cradle stand solemnly while what’s supposed to be a high-energy dance band tries to feed off the audience’s energy — or lack there of.
Maybe the folks lining the walls at the Cradle were too cool for school and didn’t want to grace us all with their dance moves. Yeah, that must be it.
Hopefully the next time Ra Ra Riot plays in front of a Triangle crowd, we’ll show them we truly appreciate their showmanship and aren’t afraid to get down a little. Or we can just stand around with our arms crossed again.
NOTE: I noticed you, long-bearded man, and I appreciate that you danced from start to finish! That is how it’s done.
Music.MyNC’s Jake Seaton was joined by photographer
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November 23rd, 2010 at 3:52 pm
I have to say I disagree very much with this review (other than the fact that Ra Ra Riot is really good and they put on a great performance). I’m only commenting because I was one of those people standing on the side wall of Cat’s Cradle because a) the floor was absolutely packed and b) Ra Ra Riot is not a dance band. They put on high energy performances that you can get lost in and bob your head and dance just a little bit to, but they are not a band that you go dance your ass off to; they are band that you watch with utter delight and enjoy wholeheartedly due to their beautiful, almost whimsical songs. Everything from the strings, the lyrics, the highs and the lows of their songs — this band is a band that you can appreciate without the need to dance and move around a bunch. Just from the fact that so many people showed up I think says enough about how much this band is appreciated, so I don’t think it’s disrespectful that people weren’t dancing. I totally get why people would dance and what not, but for the most part people simply don’t view Ra Ra Riot as a crazy-get-down-and-dance-a-bunch kind of band. Clearly, they have a large fan base and people enjoyed the show immensely, so for you to say that they weren’t appreciated just because people weren’t dancing I think really is a bit of a stretch.