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There’s no ignoring the critic-ascribed melancholy of Ra Ra Riot’s The Rhumb Line, with the haunted nature of its lyrics and chamber music-infused sound – all of which admittedly make a crowd hesitant to dance.  But if Ra Ra Riot proved anything at their recent show at The Firebird, it was that handclaps and cellos actually can mix.

As for the openers, Chicago-based Map & Atlases provided a welcome reprieve from Princeton’s green (and I don’t mean eco-friendly) set.  Where Princeton teased with “Shout it Out,” a song that sounded more like a lullaby or funeral dirge than high-energy dance tune, Maps & Atlases delivered, providing danceable rhythms paired with delightfully nasal vocals.

Though they opened with (and stumbled through) a new tune at the September twentieth gig, Ra Ra Riot ultimately delivered an inspired set.  The first half of their show exhibited a solemnity, due largely to Wesley Miles’ vocals, as the venue’s acoustics sometimes swallowed the band’s hallmark violin (Rebecca Zeller) and cello (Alexandra Lawn).  “St. Peter’s Day Festival” could have passed for a hymn with the prayerfully repeated incantation “…Let us in!”  That same somberness created an atmosphere that vacillated between art performance and rock concert, which the audience ate up – at times simply swaying to the music while at others hooting with, yelling at, and frequently thanking the band.  These elements all came together in an anthemic delivery of “Oh La” that, with its earnest declaration of “we’ve got a lot to learn from each other, we have got to stick together,” would have brought Bob Geldof to his knees.

The set picked up in the second half with an exhilarating rendition of “Can You Tell” that solidified a faster pace for the show and got feet moving.  Crowd pleaser “Ghost Under Rocks” epitomized the spirit of the night—cathartic melancholy meets frenetic energy – that the e.e. cummings inspired “Dying is Fine” reiterated as the set’s finale.

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