Detoxing The Airwaves

Last night I was lucky enough to catch Ratatat at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia. I think the last time they came around Philly was like, three years ago, so it’s a treat to see them live.

So how was the show? My feet hurt, I think I picked up a cold, and I’m dehydrated from last night. But that was one of the top ten shows I’ve been to. They had some kind of state of the art projection system where when the band was playing a song, the music video was playing on the wall behind them. They also had random clips for songs that didn’t have music videos. That wasn’t the cool thing tho. On both sides of the stage, there was an opaque screen that projected certain images. For instance, when a string section started playing during a song, two guys with string instruments would appear on the screen and start playing. And they looked so real!

Now that’s just the visual part of the show. That alone was easily one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I was interested to see how the band translated live, since they have such an unique sound, and it’s really cool to see how they do it. There were a number of different instruments on the stage, and the two members didn’t stick to playing just one instrument. They didn’t stick to the albums sound, instead feeding off the energy of the crowd. Thankfully, the crowd brought it, and the band brought the jamz. On a number of songs, the whole place was dancing, and it was truly a special feeling to see that.