Ra Ra Riot returns to upstate NY

by Taylor Coe
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

In June of 2007, just before Ra Ra Riot would make a splash with their first EP, their drummer John Ryan Pike went missing after a show in Providence, Rhode Island and was found dead the following day. Not only was Pike an original member of the Syracuse outfit—he was also the principal songwriter, penning half of the tunes that ended up on the group’s critically acclaimed first release. Suffering such a blow, some found the group’s decision to keep playing together a surprise. But Ra Ra Riot obviously still had some mileage yet to go. Now, with two albums under their belt and coming off a tour in Japan, Ra Ra Riot will stop at Hamilton for a show on Saturday, April 30 at 8 p.m. in the Tolles Pavilion.

The group, six members strong, includes an odd dose of classical orchestration with Alexandra Lawn on cello and Rebecca Zeller on violin. Leaning less toward the rollicking indie styling of fellow string players in Arcade Fire and more towards the pseudo-orchestral flourishes of ’70s giant Electric Light Orchestra.

Where ELO was all bombast, however, Ra Ra Riot is all restraint. The group’s remarkable first album demonstrates care with regard to their classical leanings, placing the strings high in the mix with guitar and bass; it would not be hard to imagine stripping the rock elements away to leave behind a mournful folk album in the vein of Horse Feathers.

This is not to say that the music has no pulse or merely pretends to have one. There is a real urgency underneath Ra Ra Riot’s showy exterior. A cursory listen to “Boy,” the single off their latest album The Orchard, shows that they are not merely feigning at brawn; they have the musical chops and the dynamic power to pack a real punch. As for the accompanying brains to such brawn, one would only need to listen to “Dying Is Fine” off their first album The Rhumb Line. The song, written by Pike, takes its inspiration from the E.E. Cummings poem “dying is fine)but Death”—rupturing Cummings’s careful typesetting through a recontextualization into song.

It makes sense that music critic Andrew Leahey referred to them as “a thinking man’s pop band.” The label works for Ra Ra Riot, but it would be far from accurate in describing their opener: Oh No Oh My, the four-piece band from Austin, TX with a despairingly awkward name. But what Oh No Oh My lack in indie cache (see Ra Ra Riot: lyrics born out of modernist poetry, a prerequisite string section), is more than made up for in likability. With a penchant for odd lyrics (“You skipped the foreplay / And now the baby’s on the way”) and an ear for catchy melodies, Oh No Oh My is a band that deserves attention.

Tickets for the concert are free for students and the Hamilton community, available online at rarariotathamilton.eventbrite.com.