On Saturday, Oct. 12, I went to go see the Baroque Pop/Electronic Indie band Ra Ra Riot at the Center Church on The Green, located on Temple Street in downtown New Haven.

Having seen them twice already, I knew it would be a great show, but I had no idea how it could be any different than the other two times. As soon as I entered the church, I realize how unique the venue was. The Center Church was established in New Haven as a Puritan church in 1638, and even though it has been restored many times since then, it still looks very antique on the inside. Because of this, I was shocked when I realized that there would be a rock show right where the priest gives his sermons.It turns out that the congregation rents the church out many nights a year for various concerts. Even though the tickets are general admission, there was no standing room, and everyone had a seat in the pews. This sounds like an odd way to give a concert, but if you can imagine standing for about four hours straight, you’ll start to change your mind.

Two bands opened for Ra Ra Riot on this leg of their Fall Tour. The first band was Cayucas, an indie band that was formed by two twin brothers, Zach and Ben Yudin in Santa Monica, California. The second band was Caveman, who, regardless of their rugged stage presence, put on a fantastic show. Both bands did an amazing job at warming up the crowd and getting everyone pumped up for the headliners. By the end of both openers sets, the crowd was on their feet.

Like most churches, synagogues and temples, the Center Church had incredible acoustics. Good acoustics are needed in churches, because before the microphone was invented, it was necessary for everyone in the congregation to be able to hear the priest well. The acoustics of the church allowed the sound from all the speakers to be distributed perfectly among everyone, so the back row heard the band just as well as the front row did. Each band had their own sound engineer, which is a great advantage since every band is different, and engineers who know the band will know how to better design their sound.

Ra Ra Riot always had a great stage presence. The bassist, Mathieu Santos, always has a smile on his face. The singer, Wes Miles, hits spectacular high notes as if it was sampled straight from the album. That’s one of the things that are so great about Ra Ra Riot’s live performances. They are masters at reproducing the sound that they have on their studio albums, which is something very difficult to do when the vocals are in such a high pitch range. Most vocalists have to either change the key of their songs or just sing in a different register to be able to sound good live. Miles never disappoints the audience with his vibrant vocals.

Even though they only have three studio albums, Ra Ra Riot includes a balanced combination of songs from their first two Baroque Pop albums and their third album, Beta Love, which marked a change in direction in the band from Baroque Pop to Electronic Indie. They always do a good job in regards of pleasing both their new and old fans.

The live show has always been fun. They manage to play their music well, keep the audience captivated, and run around stage, keeping things fun all at the same time. Throughout their years of performing live this has always been a constant; however, this tour included something new.

Along with a great stage presence, they added an awesome lighting program. These last shows included lighting design that Ra Ra Riot hasn’t really implemented in previous tours. Multiple triggers such as the bass drum, snare drum, or certain vocal melodies cause certain light patterns to be seen by the audience. Instead of having regular lights hanging from the ceiling, the band had many thin cylinders surrounding the stage, which gave it a very fun yet minimalistic stage setup.

After the show was over, I stayed behind after everyone left, hoping to meet the band. One of my favorite things about Ra Ra Riot is that since they are not as well known as other artists, they are a lot more modest and down to earth. I met all of the members of the band, and I was able to talk to them both as a fan and as a musician. I talked to Mat (the bassist) about techniques that we had in common, along with ones that we didn’t share.

I’ve met many other well-known musicians and I’ve never felt like I’ve been able to connect with them on the level that I connected with the members of Ra Ra Riot. They have a great stage presence, they have a great sound, and they keep the audience entertained from the time they start, till their last song, so I would highly recommend seeing this band live to anyone interested in the indie music scene.