Ra Ra Riot comes to town

AM New York ran an interview from Metromix with Ra Ra Riot's Wesley Miles today, officially kicking off their invasion of New York this upcoming weekend. The band is playing tomorrow to a sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom, and according to the article is just putting the final touches on their full-length debut, expected for release later this year.

In the article, Wes explains the reasoning behind naming their tour van "Mark Wahlberg", how they releate to the Funky Bunch, the pressure of delivering an awesome show, and the gifts & tricks Wes keeps up his sleeve for crowds that earn them.

"Each one of us has a style on the stage that comes through. I have this thing where I throw my arms all around uncontrollably and I clap behind my back and between one of the guitar players' armpits. I do stuff like that. But that's only when I'm really feeling like the crowd's deserving it. I don't just throw those around."

For Ra Ra Riot, you gots to earn that love. The interview ended with Wes being told about Ra Ra Riot being compared to sex.

"Actually, someone described your shows as “the best musical lovemaking of my life.”
That’s pretty nice. There’s a lot of emotions and excitement. I could see how someone would confuse it for some love-type thing.

What does “musical lovemaking” mean to you?
I don’t know. It’s difficult. I don’t think in terms of lovemaking when I’m making music. Definitely sometimes think about love as an emotion when I’m performing or when I’m writing. Lovemaking’s not something I think about so much when I’m performing."

Catch them tomorrow at the Bowery Ballroom, if you can get any tickets, or coming up on April 23rd at Maxwell's.

Here's a screenshot of the AM New York article, and a link to the original Metromix interview.

METROMIX
PDF of AM NEW YORK