The Antlers & Ra Ra Riot at Brooklyn Academy of Music, February 5, 2010

Posted in Live, Music, Photos, Reviews on 08. Feb, 2010

Ra Ra Riot and The Antlers played the final show in this year’s Sounds Like Brooklyn mini-festival, sharing a stage at the gorgeous Howard Gilman Opera House at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Fort Greene. I was extremely excited just to see and hear two bands I love so much play in such a fancy, epic setting, but I hadn’t much of a hope of photographing it, until through a fortuitous email exchange I was able to cover the show for New York Magazine’s Vulture Blog. So, excitement! Nerves! I’m not used to shooting in such large and stately places, so hopefully I did alright. (I definitely put my 70-200mm through its paces.) Some photos and recap below; a full photo gallery of the night is available here on my flickr.

The Antlers

I’ve spoken at length, I’m sure, about why I love The Antlers so much, and I’ll inevitably do so more in the future, but it still bears repeating: I love them. It’s amazing how the songs off Hospice, which tend towards the intimate in subject matter, are transformed, live, into these huge epic sounding enormities, as though the situations and emotions described are too large and raw to be expressed any other way. Also, while their December Bowery Ballroom show is still my absolute favorite time I’ve seen them, they still manage to sound better every time.

Ra Ra Riot

The boundless energy and enthusiasm Ra Ra Riot radiate from the stage is uncanny. They’re one of my favorite bands to photograph because there are so many people onstage doing interesting things all the time and sounding amazing at the same time. And there’s a string section! Alexandra Lawn (cello) and Rebecca Zeller (violin), situated on opposite sides of the stage, are in some ways the glue that holds the whole operation together, elevating the band’s upbeat, literate pop tunes into something really special. (And I dare you, try to take your eyes off them; difficult, isn’t it?) They played some new songs along with a full complement of old favorites off The Rhumb Line, and I’m very much looking forward to hearing new material on record, as well.