Ra Ra Riot @ The Bowery Ballroom

This Thursday I’m headed to NYC to see Ra Ra Riot, my favorite, college startup, kids-my-age, kick-ass-and-take-names band. My friend Allie plays the cello, which is pretty neat to know someone in a popular band.

Generally, when your friend is a band or whatever, of course you go and support them and listen to their stuff regardless of how good it is. But this is not the case with Ra Ra Riot. I love them. They are incredibly talented, incorporating cello and violin seamlessly with guitar and bass, along with clever lyrics and a dynamic stage presence (particularly when Mathieu Santos rocks out too hard and clobbers his bandmates with his bass).

My favorite song by them is Dying is Fine, a song that brings the following E.E. Cummins poem to life:

dying is fine)but Death
?o
baby
i

wouldn't like

Death if Death
were
good:for

when(instead of stopping to think)you

begin to feel of it,dying
's miraculous
why?be

cause dying is

perfectly natural;perfectly
putting
it mildly lively(but

Death

is strictly
scientific
& artificial &

evil & legal)

we thank thee
god
almighty for dying
(forgive us,o life!the sin of Death

And, in case you missed it, here is the basis for the music video.

And here is another music video.