When Ra Ra Riot plays a show, it takes the stage with a standard setup: a guitarist, bassist, vocalist and drummer.
But it also sets up a cellist and violinist.
The band doesn’t try to pigeonhole itself into any one genre, as its uncommon instrument choices would attest.
“I usually just say it’s rock music,” guitarist Milo Bonacci said with a laugh. “I feel like the most general answer is in some ways the best because it doesn’t confine us in any way.”
The quintet uses its cello and violin as frequently as it does guitar, making for its eclectic, chamber-music sound. Bonacci said that the band is committed to the discovery of more ways to use unexpected instruments in a modern context.
The use of stringed instruments is part of the band’s “ongoing exploration or quest to find how things can fit together in different ways,” he said.
The group’s members — Bonacci and cellist Alexandra Lawn, bassist Mathieu Santos, violinist Rebecca Zeller, vocalist Wes Miles and drummer Kenny Bernard — will feel at home playing at this university tonight, headlining Student Entertainment Events’ fall concert. The group met while attending Syracuse University and decided to have some fun playing at friends’ parties, Bonacci said.
On its sophomore album The Orchard, released last year, he said the band decided to approach its music in a different environment from its original, university-fueled one: a peach orchard.
“We were all living together in a farmhouse in upstate New York, sort of shifting gears after being on tour for the better part of three years,” Bonacci said. “We’re approaching the album from a different point of view, a different context.”
Part of the new context came with the passing of former drummer John Pike in 2007. His death, Bonacci said, reinstated a sense of purpose for the band.
“We felt some sort of responsibility to keep on playing music that John had written or co-written and didn’t want to let that fade away,” he said.
The band has grown up from its college days, but Bonacci said it still retains the same philosophy it had back in the day at parties.
“I want to move people in some way,” he said. “It might shift a little bit — you know, ideas and ideals might come into focus for certain songs or certain records — but fundamentally, it’s still there.”
Ra Ra Riot plays Ritchie Coliseum at 8 p.m. Friday, headlining Student Entertainment Events’ annual fall concert. Tickets are $7 for UMD ID holders and $15 for the general public.
