BrightestYoungThings: TeenBeat: Ra Ra Riot / Princeton @ 930 Club

all photos: London Venturelli (Princeton) and Sergey Guryakov (Ra Ra Riot)
all words: Sal

After last months listening party with Princeton, I was super excited to see them in concert. Their brand of low-fi pop music really appealed to me and I wanted to see how they translated their album to the stage. What struck me first, (other than the twin brother frontmen) was how each member of the band was a multi-instrumentalist. Each member would move from instrument seemlessly and the vocal duties were shared throughout the band as well. Playing most of their new album Cocoon of Love, the material sounded perfect in the 930 Club's beautiful space. Also striking was the number of people who showed up for the opener. Even with an 8 o' clock start time about half the floor was full. After the show I made it outside in time to catch up with the band and their manager Seth. Other than being great musicians they are also some of the most humble people I've ever met. Princeton will be back in town on the 18th and you'd be doing yourself a favor if you checked them out.

I made it back in for a bit of Maps and Atlas. Similar in the pop realm of music, M and A had an edgey more rock quality to their music. By the time they cam on however, the place was mostly full and as usual people were chatting it up and using the music as background to their conversations. Troubled as usual by this I really couldn't hone into their music. From what I could hear I enjoyed and I definitely would like to see them in a smaller more intimate setting.

As my photographer was leaving and I had had two long nights in a row I decided to skip out on Ra Ra Riot (who I'd seen many times before and I was only there really to check out Princeton) and head home to bed. Alas that's where the comment section helps everyone out. If you have a little parable about Ra Ra please leave it in the comments for the benefit of all.

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