So last Thursday 15 April I saw Ryat from Philadelphia, I believe. They represent their city well. In that same way I like how local bands add to Chicago's cultural landscape, and represent the city. Ryat is a curious window into Philly. A fascinating window period. Seeing them was kind of unplanned. A lot of things had to converge to finally get me to go. It was a deliberate but difficult choice of them over a local band next door. I could have been frugal but at the greater cost of missing this absolutely amazing original band. I'm still trying to figure them out for myself. I can say I like it....a lot. Let me begin to at least put them in the right company, who they remind me of. Like, Telepathe, My Gold Mask, Future Ghosts, Phantogram, and now Ryat, these are all bands that have found their singular way of making the electronic sound organic. The way that works with Ryat live is that a lot of the beats are done right there by her, and that makes for some very individual and energetic shows.
A funny thing happened on the way to Empty Bottle. Reggies kidnapped Ryat from the north side and hid them in the Music Joint. The south side is in dire need of this kind of culture. The 'Bottle has these kind of bands all the time, it's just that much more avant-garde to have them on the south side, where the cave men are. The band still had to compete with the minor distractions of screens showing kung fu movies, sports, conversation, and hyper-enthusiastic loud fans, remember cave men. The long picnic tables are so you can eat and watch the band...if you want. On the south side you just can't expect a place to go cold turkey on The Sox, especially that close to Cellular Field. The brutes would just heckle the band no matter who it is.
The title song "street noise orKestra" starts off with these dance inducing beats that makes you wish to see this live. I'm glad I was there. Ryat had the drum right near the keyboard, metaphorically near the hip. The part of the mind that feels is what wrote the drums. When you see them live before having the CD it's a different imprint. It's that experience that you end up wanting to recreate and "street noise orKestra" does just that. It captured for me that live moment, empowering like a fucking indian ghost dance. You hear her say "you're not gonna hold me down" and feel empowered further. It's nice to have her voice so clear so you can follow and identify. At first it's one or two things that hook you and the song ends with a bunch of things hooking you. All these people in one party, guitar, keyboard, drums combined in this human organic way. I mean Ryat was drumming away like Budgie from Creatures in some of her songs and that was very dance inducing in that same tribal way. I will probably have more to say about them as I listen to the CD more, an excuse to put up more pics of them.
Zig
