Get Out Monday: Ra Ra Riot and The Little Ones @ Chop Suey

As we have mentioned approximately nine million times before, Ra Ra Riot is a band you must see live. The Syracuse-based sextet has guitars, a cello, a violin, and energy to spare. Their music manages to be both uplifting and catchy, and their high-minded brand of articulate, orchestral pop always goes over well. Once again (as with every time we've seen 'em), they're an opening band on the bill, which makes things a little awkward when they inevitably get more of a rise out of the crowd than the headliners.

Things might be a little different at tonight's all-ages show, as this time around, the bill is actually well-matched, with Ra Ra Riot (and Panda & Angel) opening for The Little Ones, an L.A. pop-rock band who are just plain happy. In fact, we don't think we've ever seen a band so genuinely happy to be playing live. Their sets provoke big smiles all around, both onstage and in the audience. These laidback guys have two EPs to their name (with one particularly, awesomely, mega-poppy track), and their label-shuffling-delayed full-length is purported to be out sometime this summer. We're pretty sure that even if/when Ra Ra Riot gets a bigger reaction from the Chop Suey crowd, the Little Ones won't mind. They're too happy-go-lucky to stress over such things. These guys are thrilled just to be making their sunny tunes and sharing them with others.