Live Review

Hurray For The Riff Raff – King Tut’s, Glasgow

• 29th May 2011

A disappointingly small Saturday night crowd was very well entertained by an eclectic four band line up headed by Hurray For The Riff Raff from New Orleans.

The Last Battle, an Edinburgh based eight piece folk band opened the night. Their gentle tales were emotional and well performed. The lead singer has an excellent folk voice and was ably backed by some lovely female harmonies, while the cello added an atmospheric edge. The single Ruins from the band’s forthcoming debut album was perhaps the highlight.

Night Noise Team, another Edinburgh band, were up next. Their pop infused songs were professionally delivered, but the eighties feel to their sound was a little wearing after a while. The addition of a piano to the mix offered some much needed variety and there were some fine bass lines, particularly in their last song.

David J Roch from Sheffield was the pick of the support acts. Playing with just a drummer he displayed a tremendous vocal range. His opening track was delivered in a strong falsetto voice while later tracks were sung in much lower registers. The slow acoustic Hour of Need was excellent, as were two songs about the devil. As Roch explained, this was perhaps strange subject matter for a man who makes his living as an undertaker.

Alynda Lee Segarra and Yosi Perlstein from Hurray For The Riff Raff played an excellent set as an acoustic duo. The combination of the stripped back sound and the small crowd made this a very intimate performance, and it was perhaps better for that, as the audience listened in near silence throughout.

The New Orleans based pair started their set with Slow Walk from the UK album Meet Me In The Morning, which contains tracks from two previous self released US albums. Perlstein played a haunting violin part while Segarra’s acoustic guitar backed her languid but beautiful vocals in a lovely folk track.

Take Me had more of a country edge while for the love song Daniellla, Segarra’s vocals were more expansive, showing that she has power at her disposal as well as tone control. I have a feeling this one would sound even better with the backing of a full band. And Young Blood Blues saw the singer on banjo for an excellent country blues number.

Hurray For The Riff Raff have a musical style that shows a range of musical influences. To call their sound Americana is much too simple. There is a folk base but with elements of country and Appalachian mountain music. Throw in a taste of the Bayou and you have something special.

The performance was anchored by the beautiful vocal tones of Alynda Lee Segarra, and their song writing is of a consistently high quality. It is unfortunate that so few people witnessed such a fine performance.