Flawless

I know this concert was Saturday night, and today is Monday. Fuck you for judging.


Ra Ra Riot, the Paradise Rock Club, 10/3/09

1. The Place
I won't wax poetic about the Paradise more than I have to, seeing as I already have (see: Sondre Lerche). It was, however, very darling that one of the bands mentioned the bizarre metal columns that dissect the room. They're sort of stylized trees, but even that seems a little too nice. They suck and they're huge.

2. The Performance
I don't like calling things perfect, if only in part because I'm too young and too dumb to be able to definitively determine whether it's true, and I will probably feel that way until the day I die. On my deathbed, I will make a list of the perfects, and pass it down to my children so that they may forever know what to eat, where to live, and which concerts it is their grave misfortune they weren't born in time to see.

This is one of those.

Up first was Princeton, a California quartet. The answer to all of the following questions is yes.
Were they heartbreakingly cute, despite featuring a set of twins (one of my big fears)? Did they sound like something out of a John Hughes movie? Did they do a duet with Alli from RRR? Were they catchy 80s synth pop the likes I haven't heard and enjoyed in ages? Am I seriously considering seeing them in a couple weeks when they come to the Middle East with Art Brut, despite making that four concerts in four days?
Strangely, Maps + Atlases, the next guys up, weren't quite as good, despite the higher billing. Hyper intricate guitar work that I didn't really get on record made much more sense live, but they were still lacking the sort of blind youthful joy the other two bands gorged themselves on. A bit of a buzz kill, in essence.
Being the last night of the tour, Ra Ra Riot seemed on the verge of bursting the whole show. It wasn't just the physical energy of six musicians running and hugging and tousling each others' hair between songs and an audience reciprocating, but rather the emotional energy of being six college friends who've made it in the closest sense of the term. I've never been proud of a band before, but two nights ago I felt like a damn parent at my kids' recital. Cellist Alli's bow was almost fully shredded by the end of the night from the pounding it took, but when all three bands shared the stage to maybe the happiest cover of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love, it made total sense. Over a dozen musicians, fitted with every species of noisemaker, stringed creature and childish excitement, after a long , successful tour, screamed and jumped and romped for four minutes.

Needless to say, we all left grinning like idiots when the houselights came up, the bands included.

Or so we hope.


Up next is Manic Street Preachers at the Paradise, Thursday October 8.

Until then,
Stay golden (brown),
--WF
I Princeton - Sadie and Andy