Ratatat's Been Rapping for About Seventeen Years, Okay?

Ratatat is a dance band. A melodic, guitar-driven, videogame soundtrack dance band, but a dance band all the same. It took a while, but last night at a sweaty sold-out Neumo’s, the New York electro-rockers had asses shaking and all the kids jumping around. On the eve of their third album’s release, multi-instrumentalist Evan Mast and guitarist Mike Stroud (along with some guy and his damn big fro) kicked off their US tour with a smoke machine and tight tracks from new album LP3, along with all the hits from their previous releases.

But it wasn’t gonna be easy. The performance was rife with technical difficulties, from speakers squawking to backing tracks dropping out to the complete loss of the LCD digital projector after the show's first fifteen minutes. (What little we did get to see of the video accompaniment notably featured a delicious Predator montage.) Even without the Schwarzenegger visuals, Ratatat had the crowd in the palms of their scrawny little hands. That’s not a surprise, with Stroud shredding 70s arena rock guitar licks and Mast throwing on some funky basslines and drum samples, while Big Fro played the synths and autoharp. It’s funky and fun, and with the multi-culti bent on the new album, Ratatat really feels like summer. Like the last time we saw them, both the band and the crowd rocked out. If anything, the crowd reacted more strongly to the band’s older songs, including set closer "Seventeen Years" and "Wildcat," now appearing in a Rhapsody ad near you. But give it time; the album just dropped today. Come September, all the kids at the Showbox will be losing their shit over "Mirando."

Ratatat play an all-ages show at the Showbox Friday, September 5th.