First off, I must establish what happened in Tulsa, OK on Easter Sunday during Ra Ra Riot's set.
Yes, that's Death Cab in the suits. Jason McGerr actually PURCHASED his costume (the rest rented). He flew home the next day, took a car from the airport, changed, and surprised his wife and kids dressed as the easter bunny. Cool dad huh? And he plays the drums!!!
These last shows have been a blast though. Crushing, long drives (8 hrs) every day... but its worth it. Apparently this tour has propelled Ra Ra Riot back into the top 100 chart on iTunes! within about 6 shows, they appeared and climbed to #60-something. Exposure works.
We've all gotten cozier with the members of Death Cab and Cold War Kids, and there's been a streak of poker games in the green room before and after shows. Chips and all. Rebecca is notoriously good. How appropriate, she's sly like that.
Got a new video up here, its an action packed 10-minute long journey. Largely featuring Mathieu Santos doing silly crap. The camera loves it.
Here's the good stuff. We embark on a month long tour opening for Death Cab For Cutie with Cold War Kids.
Our first show was in Toronto the day after Webster Hall in NYC... that was a hell drive. Departing at 6 am, we arrived in Toronto around 5 to the venue. Within minutes we had all met Ben Gibbard, Chris Walla, Nick Harmer, and Jason McGerr of Death Cab. It was entirely thrilling to be greeted so kindly at the onset of the tour. They truly made an effort to introduce themselves and make us feel welcome. All we can talk about is how cool they are. There have been countless times when Death Cab members have come over to Ra Ra Riot's dressing room territory or dining tables in the catering room to hang out and chat. For me, it was wild meeting them. And it remains to be wild. Death Cab is a top-five favorite band of mine.
That first Toronto show went great. Ra Ra Riot played a standup 25-minute set for a crowd of about 1000; Many of whom had intentions of catching them as the opener. Next, we played a large theater in Upper Darby Pennsylvania just outside of Philly, followed by DAR Constitution Hall in D.C., Davidson College, and another fantastic, ornate theater in Louisville Kentucky.
As Ra Ra Riot's front-of-house sound engineer, this tour has been really exciting for me. I will admit that I was a bit intimidated by the notion of mixing every night on a large, flown, line array PA in large rooms with a digital console that I have never used before. But this stuff is state of the art technology, and its surprisingly intuitive and easy to use. The coolest thing about the console is that, because its digital, every adjustment and bit of progress I make at each show is stored at the end of the set, and loaded up at the next venue we play. The band's mix has gotten progressively tighter and stronger... almost eliminating the need for a lengthy sound check. Working with the system technician (employee of the hired production company that brings semi's of lights, stage, and PA to every show) and Will, Death Cab's sound engineer, has been so helpful.
Merch sales have been INSANE every night on this tour. dozens of CDs/vinyls, and catastrophic amounts of t-shirts.
Really looking forward to the rest of this tour. Check out the first video I put together. Till next time
Greetings, I am Andrew Maury. An old friend of Ra Ra Riot since the early college years. I've been touring with them since the fall of 2008 as their front-of-house sound engineer, and spent this past winter in the studio co-producing and engineering their new album, The Orchard, which released August 24, 2010.
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