Up and Coming: Ra Ra Riot
By Jordan ShroyerWednesday, June 3, 2009
"We're gripping seat and plots, pleading to the honored lots to give us this much more, safe from a cutting shear." - Ra Ra Riot
I walk into Ra Ra Riot's dressing room minutes after they've walked off stage to the sold-out crowd at the Hard Rock Live to find them dancing around a boom box blasting Paul Simon. The room is filled with hardly touched catering, hundreds of chocolate covered fruits, brownies and cakes and cases of Miller High Lifes and two unopened bottles of champagne. It's the last night of their five week tour with Death Cab For Cutie and it should be a night to celebrate - but the bottles will probably stay corked since they plan to make the drive back home to Syracuse, New York, once the show lets out.
"We've spent eight of the past nine months on the road," said guitarist Milo Bonacci. In other words, the though of arriving home a night early seemed like a far more exciting endeavor than a night of partying.
For those unfamiliar, the band consists of six members, including two female string players. Ra Ra gently rock along the likes of Vampire Weekend, the Shins, or what I imagine a toned-down Cursive would sound like. Their back story is darker than that of the typical two-year-old band.
Bonacci co-founded the hip-hop group Gym Class Heroes with childhood friend Travis McCoy, but departed as they neared the edge of blowing in exchange for studying Italian architecture in Florence. When he returned to the states, Bonacci began playing music with some friends from Syracuse University -- vocalist Wesley Miles, bassist Mathieu Santos, classically-trained violinist Rebecca Zeller and cellist Alexandra Lawn, and drummer John Pike. Ra Ra Riot was formed.
The band quickly released their self-titled EP and were nearly finished with the writing of their debut album when the unexpected occurred. Pike disappeared a couple hours into an after show party in Massachusetts in June 2007. He was found dead the next morning floating in the ocean.
The band didn't let their musical endeavor become tarnished by the tragedy. Instead, they continued to record "The Rhumb Line," which was co-written by Pike, and push Ra Ra to the next level. The album was well received an earned them spots on various late-night TV shows.
"Conan was the scariest because it was our first experience," said Zeller of the late-night performance circuit. "They have you there all day and things just kind of build up. It's an entire day that leads up to a three and a half minute performance. After we got that first one out of the way, we did Letterman and Ferguson and they went really well. We had fun instead of being completely scared."
When asked about their musical influences, the band doesn't drop any current artists -- instead, they reference the Police, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Devo, and U2. In other words, they are influenced by the most influential rock bands in world.
Miles adds, "Getting into Devo was really exciting. They were one of the influences for the song 'Too Too Too Fast' which originally sounded much more like Devo than it does now -- but our influences are always changing."
The band is no stranger to Orlando, having played here three times in the past year -- not including the acoustic in-store set they performed at Park Ave. CDs earlier in the day. Miles enthusiastically proclaimed of the show: "It was one of out best in-stores ever -- and I'm not just saying that."
Their current tour with Death Cab For Cutie -- a band whose most recent album debuted at the #1 spot on the Billboard charts -- is quite a different than the headlining club shows they are accustomed to.
"You have to behave," said Bonacci. "It's not our crowd. We have to be a little more reserved on stage than we would be at one of our shows."
"You can't get mad if people aren't paying attention. They're not there to see you anyways," Santos added. In comparison to a headlining show, Zeller jokingly called their opening slot "diet Ra Ra Riot."
As our conversation neared its end, members of the tour's crew and Death Cab themselves continued to piled into the room to say their goodbyes. The five week stint may have come to and end, but Ra Ra Riot has a lot in store for them. This summer they will be playing various festivals, including Lollapalooza, and will begin writing and recording their next album. No wonder they're in such a hurry to get home. Their little R&R break won't be lasting long.
