Perhaps a small, folksy concert isn’t the likeliest place to end up on Halloween, but if you caught Hurray for the Riff Raff, internationally acclaimed local folk/blues collective, at the Hi Ho Lounge last Friday, you were certainly in for a treat.
This Americana band is centered around lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Alynda Lee Segarra, and since the debut of their self-released first album in 2008, they’ve been steadily attracting more and more attention.
Hurray for the Riff Raff's Alynda Lee Segarra (Photo: Sarah Danzinger)
Their fifth and most recent album, Small Town Heroes, is their first on a major label (ATO) and does a stunning job melding the concerns of the contemporary generation with the timeless spirit of American roots music.
This spirit and soulfulness permeated the Halloween show, which featured a diverse instrumentation of guitar, violin, organ, drums, and tambourine and a mix of new and older songs.
Many were wistful, rootsy numbers like the catchy opener “Blue Ridge Mountain.”
Despite the genre types she works with, Segarra has a particular sort of aggressive energy indicative of her NYC punk-kid roots, a juxtaposition which makes her an interesting performer.
The effect was underlined Friday by the fact that she and her band came costumed as the Ramones.
The most arresting number was their second-to-last, “St. Roch Blues,” which Segarra belted out with a Joplin-esque, imploring wail, and a face twisting with emotion, heaving her whole body into the performance as if she were trying to break the stage.
It may have been a performance, but it certainly wasn’t an act.
The heavy lyrical content of Segarra’s material, which in the case of “St. Roch Blues” remembers a series of murders in that New Orleans neighborhood in 2011, is drawn largely from personal experiences living on the streets and rambling around the country.
Her songs are are peopled by ghosts, victims of violence and misfortune, and the depth of her pain is clear in her writing and delivery.
That’s not to say that her songs are all dirges, though. The overall sentiment of the album as well as the show was one of catharsis, with Segarra’s energy directed towards speaking out and fighting back against societal ills.
The band departs in November to tour New Zealand and Australia, but when they get back to town, the show is well worth the price of admission.
