The indie band from Syracuse, NY, Ra Ra Riot took the stage shortly after Best Coast at Pasadena Make Music. The crowd did not get thinner as it is sometimes the case when the favorite act has passed. I did not know much about them, but the large band looked young and eclectic, with some unexpected violinist and cellist,… What? A string section in a rock band? And this is probably the most distinctive signature of their melodic chamber-pop songs.
I have read they are friends with Vampire Weekend, but far from borrowing from some ethnic music, Ra Ra Riot follows another path, with an energetic-emotional pop of their own.
They have all the ingredients for making sophisticated, layered music with strings, guitars, drums, keyboard, and Wes Miles’ vocals, and this is basically what they do, pop compositions pumped up by a lot of energy.
But the songs seemed long and quite uniform with a touch of keyboard there, a large touch of energetic violin-cello, it was nice, but they kept building up something that was not really happening. Sure, the vocals were soaring sometimes, the bright orchestral arrangements were well done and were coming in successive little waves, just like the way they were moving on stage, but the music stayed contained and riot-free, despite a few surprises.
Their bouncing poppy sound would sometimes make me think about Death Cab for Cutie with strings, a little bit like an artsy student project? All along the set, I was waiting for that great song that would convince me that were really onto something, but it never came.
However, the crowd was responding extremely enthusiastically, not Best Coast enthusiastically, but still, clapping and cheering up. But everything seemed a little restrained, and, when the singer Wes Miles jumped on the top of the drum set toward the end of the show, he got me by surprise, since he seemed too well-behaved for this kind of move!