RATATAT 3/23/2009

Metro Theater, Chicago-

Ratatat's audio/visual buzzsaw came through here Monday night, and it was excellent. For those who don't know, Ratatat is an instrumental band that blends electronic sounds and beats with truly incredible guitar work. Guitarist Mike Stroud has a unique, unmistakeable sound, and together with bassist and programmer Evan Mast the duo has crafted three incredible original albums and two albums of rap remixes. Their second release, Classics, is one of my top 10 favorite albums, and their track Loud Pipes may be my favorite song of all time.

To truly appreciate a Ratatat show, you have to understand what happens on stage during the set. These guys don't just stand up there and play their instruments. For starters, they use a wide array of keys, percussion, and guitars to create their sound, and will switch between instruments mid-song. In addition, Stroud plays his guitar with the kind of passion and exubrance that you don't often see from bands, especially when making complicated music. He rocks out.

But that's only half the story. Ratatat also has created videos to accompany their songs and projects them on a large screen at the back of the stage. The videos are, in a word, crazy. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here are two examples:



In case you're wondering, the video above is comprised entirely of clips from Predator.



To top everything off, the band also has an impressive light display that includes progammable lasers creating images on the ceiling of the venue. Truly an experience for both the eyes and ears.

The boys managed to play more than half of the songs on each of their two most recent albums, Classics and LP3. They also played two songs off their self titled debut album, closing the show with Seventeen Years, the first track on the debut. Two of the songs they played do not appear on any of the three albums and I'm not sure where they came from. Here's a general set list, not in exact order:

Schiller, Crips, Gettysburg, Lex, Brulee, Mi Viejo, Mirando, Loud Pipes, Lex, Flynn, Kennedy, Shempi, Falcon Jab, Wildcat, Seventeen Years

Overall the set was amazing, Stroud is my hero, and the crowd ate it up. A five star show for sure.

The concert also featured two opening acts: Think About Life and Despot. Think About Life was a somewhat avant garde pyscadelic pop act that involved a very talented guitarist/programmer, a drummer, and a fairly insane lead singer. They were pretty good although the singer was very difficult to understand. Despot is a rapper on Def Jux, Aesop Rock's label. He really didn't do it for me. An ipod and a mic were not enough. His studio stuff isn't bad though. Here are links to each band's myspace page (make sure you listen to Loud Pipes):

Think About Life
Despot
Ratatat

Go see live music!