Ra Ra Riot at Celebrate Brooklyn! (08/05/11)

Photo: Jon Klemm

Ra Ra Riot played their biggest headlining show ever on Friday night before a packed house at the Prospect Park bandshell. The band was firing on all cylinders as they made their way through a deep set filled with cuts from both of their LPs and a sprinkling of covers. Wes Miles made a few speeches about how it was a truly special night for the band (and I believe it really was) and ended off their set with a victory lap of high fives through the crowd. Ra Ra Riot has a few dates left in the Northeast before they head off on a massive North American tour, including a (sort of) local show at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ on Aug 9. On a related side note, RRR was scheduled to play both the now cancelled Truck America and Music To Know Festivals, it remains to be seen whether either of those dates will be made up with local gigs, but I kind of doubt it.

Mathieu Santos at Celebrate Brooklyn! (08/05/11)

Watch: Mathieu Santos – “I Can Hear The Trains Coming” [via mashable.com]
Listen: Massachusetts 2010 [full album stream via AOL Spinner]
Photo: Jon Klemm

Like lead singer Wes Miles (who is one half of the RRR/Vampire Weekend side project Discovery), Ra Ra Riot bass player Mathieu Santos also recently struck out on his own with a solo album. Mathieu’s Massachusetts 2010 (which contains an alternate version of RRR’s “Massachusetts”) was released last week on Barsuk. Here’s a little more on the genesis of that record:

The songs that compose Massachusetts 2010 were first written last year in – you guessed it – the great state of Massachusetts. Following their recording, however, those demos were set aside and left to sit while Santos spent time on the road with his main band. In the winter and spring of 2011, he returned to the 10 songs with fresh perspective and a critical distance from the context in which they were originally written. Originally trained as a painter and applying his visual artist’s focus on only the most essential compositional elements, Santos borrowed a friend’s guesthouse in rural New Jersey where he finalized the album in just a few days. He worked quickly, maintaining the impulsive freedom of the original writing process but stripping down the palette and creating an arresting sonic environment that sparkles with tantalizing abstract imagery and finely-observed details, set against a backdrop of wide open spaces.

Tour dates and more photos of Ra Ra Riot from Celebrate Brooklyn! after the jump.

Ra Ra Riot 2011 Tour Dates
Aug-09 Asbury Park, NJ Stone Pony ^
Aug-11 Philadelphia, PA Festival Pier ^
Aug-12 Boston, MA Bank of America Pavilion ^
Aug-13 Canandaigua, NY CMAC ^
Aug-14 East Hampton, NY Music To Know Festival
Sep-09 Big Indian, NY Truck Festival
Sep-10 Valparaiso, IN Sourcestock 2011
Sep-23 Victoria, BC Rifflandia
Sep-24 Vancouver, BC Malkin Bowl #
Sep-25 Kelowna, BC Habitat &
Sep-26 Nelson, BC The Royal &
Sep-28 Calgary, AB The Gateway Bar – SAIT Campus &
Sep-29 Edmonton, AB Avenue Theatre &
Sep-30 Regina, SK The Exchange &
Oct-01 Winnipeg, MB Pyramid Cabaret &
Oct-02 Minneapolis, MN Fineline &
Oct-04 Grand Rapids, MI Pyramid Scheme &
Oct-06 Toronto, ON Lee’s Palace &
Oct-07 Ottawa, ON Mavericks Bar &
Oct-08 Montreal, QC Il Motore &
Oct-14 Pensacola, FL DeLuna Fest
Oct-28 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle *
Oct-29 Atlanta, GA The Earl *
Oct-30 Birmingham, AL Bottle Tree *
Oct-31 Memphis, TN Hi-Tone Cafe *
Nov-02 Oklahoma City, OK ACM @ UCO *
Nov-03 Dallas, TX Granada *
Nov-04 San Antonio, TX Backstage Live *
Nov-07 Santa Fe, NM Santa Fe Brewing Co. *
Nov-08 Tucson, AZ Club Congress *
Nov-09 San Diego, CA Belly Up Tavern *
Nov-10 Los Angeles, CA El Rey *
Nov-11 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall *
Nov-12 Big Sur, CA Fernwood Resort *
Nov-15 Boulder, CO Fox Theatre *
Nov-16 Lincoln, NE Bourbon Theatre *
Nov-18 Chicago, IL Metro *
Nov-19 Madison, WI The Sett *
Nov-21 Pittsburgh, PA Carnegie Lecture Hall *

^ w/ Guster
% w/ Delicate Steve and Buke and Gass
# w/ Broken Social Scene
& w/ Dinosaur Bones
* w/ Delicate Steve and Yellow Ostrich

Ra Ra Riot at Celebrate Brooklyn by Jon Klemm