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So we tried to lead you in the right direction Tuesday. You had two options as we saw it; you could head to Atlas for the indie-more-electro-than-rock-rock of Peachcake, a little concentrated ball of fun in a non-traditional space, or you could head to Neumos for the also indie, more-rock-than-electro stylings of Ratatat. We made the early call that Peachcake was the better bet, based on the higher likelihood for crazy dancing shenanigans.
Were we right or were we completely full of it (not that those two things are mutually exclusive)? Find out after the jump.
Seattlest isn't too proud to admit that we steered you wrong. Ratatat was the winner by way of forfeit. After all of our praise, the Peachcake show ended up not happening at all, leaving only Ratatat as an option. Seattlest walked from Atlas a bit disappointed, but passing Neumos and seeing people claim to be cancer patients in order to score tickets had us questioning our decision. It's not everyday people pull the cancer card, and considering the show we had yet to behold, we fully understand why they went to such extremes.
Openers 120 Days did what they could with the crowd, but they looked just a tad bored, and we couldn't really tell where that audience/band feedback loop of apathy began. They were a fine band. Yes, "fine." We'll give them another shot sometime, but this just wasn't the night for them. Seattlest took the time between bands to make our way to the front, which annoyed a few people we passed, but well, what you gonna do?
Ratatat (configured for the evening as a three piece - guitar, bass, synths) brought down the house. Standing right next to the barrier between the 21-plusses and the all-agers, our attention was split between the stage, where guitarist Mike Stroud pulled out every guitar stage trick out there short of high kicks, and the kids going insane. When we say "insane" we don't just mean they were excited. We mean they were jumping, screaming, made some (squashed) attempts at moshing, and overall did all the things we want to see at a show. What took their enthusiasm to rarely seen levels was seeing not one, but multiple instances of air guitar. We know everyone does that at home, but to bust that out at a show says a lot. Ratatat earned it though.
Stroud and crew did their best to keep the crowd engaged and had the backing visuals to back up their sound. The visuals killed a bit of the mystery since you knew exactly how many songs were left in the night, but that's a very minor quibble. The band rocked out, the crowd rocked out, and when we left Neumos, we were confident that we wouldn't sell Ratatat short again. Peachcake, we're looking forward to seeing you as well, but if there was a rematch we'd have to change our vote.
So we loved the show. Our lucky ticket winner did not have the same enjoyable experience.
Setlist:
Montanita
Crips
Lex
Germany
Loud Pipes
Truman
Nostrand
17 Years
El Pico
Wildcat
Cherry
Breaking Away
Gettysburg
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