West Coast - Spring 2009

Towards the end of February, flights brought us together in Seattle for a string of dates down the west coast playing with openers Cut Off Your Hands from New Zealand, and Telekinesis from Seattle.

I'm inclined to tailor a few of these entries a bit more like a photo-blog... but heres a little bullet list of what we did for these west coast dates:

- Barsuk dinner party at Josh Rosenfeld's lovely home
- Unnecessary Canadian border search
- Vancouver show
- Scenic ferry ride to Victoria, BC
- Show in Victoria
- More unnecessary Canadian border hold ups
- Day off in Seattle
- Expensive trip to Whole Foods and decadent fancy-beer tasting
- Portland show at the Doug Fir Lounge
- Hours of violent sprees playing GTA4 in the van (our Dodge Sprinter was pretty tricked out)
- Seattle show
- San Francisco Noise Pop Festival, show at The Independent
- 800 capacity sellout show at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles
- Visit with the Princeton boyz
- San Diego college show
- Savory dinner at The Linkery
- Studio performance for KCRW - "Morning Becomes Eclectic"
- Costa Mesa show
- Return to LA to perform on Craig Fergusen
- Flights back east

Be sure to check out my little video on this segment too. its got some cool time lapse segments that I pulled off with a handy tripod.
'Till Texas.

Misc / Pre-Tour 2009

Phew! Time to catch up with this blog. For those of you who are just tuning in, my name is Andrew Maury and I'm Ra Ra Riot's US live sound engineer. My incessant need to feel busy results in hundreds of pictures and videos via point-and-shoot camera. Inevitably, the touring life yields some great media.

My previously documented fall tour was an exciting one; Headlining some big venues in major cities and playing a lot of new places. Ra Ra Riot circled the entire country in September and October, did some dates in europe, and then hit some secondary US east-coast markets in December with our good friends in Princeton and So Many Dynamos. We've been meeting so many new friends and have really enjoyed our travels.

Coming out of the holiday season, Ra Ra Riot hit up Europe again for 2 weeks or so, followed by some random shows and embarking on a new long tour in the US. Opened a benefit concert for Regina Spektor, opened for Andrew Bird in Philly, played some university shows in the north east. My blog (belatedly) picks up circa January 2009. Stay tuned for more entries in the coming weeks. As I type this, we drive to Bloomington, Indiana. This blog is bound to catch you up on our recent west coast shows (Vancouver through San Diego), shows in and out of Texas with Tokyo Police Club and Ruby Coast, our trip to South By South West in Austin, and our upcoming April tour, opening for Death Cab For Cutie / Cold War Kids.

Enjoy!
-Andrew