RAQ last night; or, Why The Breakfast will succeed.

[bdfreetuna]

Everyone knows this band RAQ is getting a lot of buzz lately. In some cases I\'ve seen RAQ referred to like they were Breakfast\'s musical equals, supposedly there are a lot of fans that like both bands. I even remember a poll and discussion thread, maybe on PT, asking which band rocked more. And iI\'ve heard some suggestions that it would be sweet if there was a BRAQFest.

So I went and checked them out at Pearl St upstairs last night, as this venue is a 2 minute walk from my secondary residence. Aka the girlfriend\'s apartment.

Here are the facts:

There was a crowd of maybe 200 people at the start of the show. This crowd dwindled down to no more than 75 people by the end of the first set. I did not return after the set break but I assume the crowd for the second set must have been very small indeed. The crowd looked unimpressed for the most part, besides the small circle of die-hard fans up front who obviously locked on to every note and word. As die hard fans for any band do.

The music was.... decent. None of the songs sounded memorable or really stuck out at me. They played their instruments.... well. But in a sort of run-of-the-mill way. The guitar player looked like he was trying really hard to pick up some Palmieri moves but just lacked the god-given ability to pull it off. The bass player stood there, literally not moving his body for the entire set. Keyboard player dude was decent. Drums were... well he kept a beat but nothing special. And finally their vocals were really terrible, and they looked like they weren\'t even trying to sing in a way that sounds soothing to the earhole. There appeared to be little communication between members of the band, except like one time the guitar player went over towards the keyboards for a minute.

So the whole time I am somewhat getting down to the music but mostly thinking, I can\'t wait for tomorrow night at Sully\'s, Breakfast takes these guys to elementary school on the short bus, reminding them to tightly fasten their protective helmets before they leave!

And my girlfriend Ashley said something to me, which is the real reason I made this thread, not to trash RAQ believe it or not

She has seen Breakfast four times so far and is all about it. She\'ll be down @ Sully\'s tonight and I\'m warning you right now, make some space on the dance floor!

ANYWAY

She said, "The guys in Breakfast are so much cooler than these guys! Like they have all this energy and their personalities are just.... like the drummer... I love all those guys they are so awesome they have this crazy interaction and its like they are all playing together."

Me: "Plus they play their instruments a thousand times better" (sorry I can\'t help it)

..
..

So check it out. Breakfast has mad personality, yo! And it\'s like their personalities are coming out even more lately, with Tim getting even crazier than ever, Matt joining the team with his c-r-azy antics, Adrian being Arian, and Ron even cracking a smile now and then :lol:

Seriously though. This is a huge part of why Breakfast rules and people are going to start latching on to this band. It\'s just a matter of exposure. I\'ll admit I was too unprepared and .. yes, lazy to bring promo material
to the RAQ show. But good God most of the people there, if they thought *that* was good they would be totally blown away by our boys.

The way I see it, it\'s only a matter of time now. No doubt the word is out in Northampton after Breakfast just brought the heat to Iron Horse and RAQ brought the luke warm bathwater to Pearl St.

See y\'all tonight!

[ds673488]

good thread, all good points.  i took my friend to FF9 for her first show, and before we went she was commenting on how she saw RAQ once and didnt really like them.  THis made me kind of nervous because i too had heard all of the raq-breakfast comparisons (even though ive never seen RAQ).   But she liked them a lot and definately will see them again when they come nearby.

[FreeSpirit]

I"ll never really appreciate RAQ after seeing them live at Camp Barefoot in July.  They were an hour late for a 2-hour gig, sound checked for a full 30 minutes, and the house music was still playing for the first 5 minutes when they finally decided to play the their weak set.  I know we all have bad days/nights, but it just made me lose a lot of respect for the band.  I\'m sure they\'re great, but I don\'t think I\'ll ever see them live again :shrug:

[Wolfman]

Right on Tuna man.  You have just experienced a frequently discussed Breakfast fan phenomenon I call "Breakfast Band Burnout", which is what happens when you\'ve seen a bunch of kickass Breakfast shows and other bands start to seem boring or just not as good.  Definitely been there, and I still get that from time to time at other shows.  Sometimes I will find myself watching a band thinking, "This is OK, but I\'d rather be seeing The Breakfast do the same thing only better."  

The Breakfast play harder, faster, and louder than any band in their class, we all know that.  And that\'s what we love about them.  The thing to remember, though, is that there are a fair share of music fans who are not into this.  (Case in point: In Northampton Breakfast was at Iron Horse while RAQ plays the bigger Pearl Street.)  They\'re into other styles, like what Raq has to offer or what other bands have to offer.  It\'s easy for us to fall into the trap of saying how The Breakfast is superior to everyone.  They are the best at what they do, but they\'re really only superior to the individual whose personal needs from a band are a style match to what The Breakfast are doing.  A Ferrari kicks the ass of a Dodge Caravan, until you need to bring 4 kids to a soccer game.  You get the idea.  It\'s all about personal needs.

RAQ puts together good sets and has a great relationship with The Breakfast.  They\'re a good band and really good guys.  I hope they get together with TB for more shows someday.

[bdfreetuna]

True Wolfman.

But between the Iron Horse w/ BFast and Pearl St. w/ RAQ it was obvious these bands need to swap venues.

Iron Horse crowd was maybe slightly smaller at show opening. But waaay less people left. By the time RAQs first set was over the crowd was far less than the amount of people still there for Breakfast\'s encore. And crowd energy was off the hook at the Iron Horse dance party. The only kids really getting down for RAQ were a few of the die-hards.

I see this and its only a matter of time before somebody that matters notices.

Again, I\'m not trying to talk shit about RAQ. But having heard all the comparisons I was really surprised. The Breakfast are really starting to impress me with their professionalism.

[FrankZappa]

A Ferrari kicks the ass of a Dodge Caravan, until you need to bring 4 kids to a soccer game.

[weekapaug19]

Ok, so I\'ve seen raq about 30 times and really dig them, but I like the b\'fast much more.  Last night\'s show was TERRIBLE. The only good 15 minutes were in the 2nd set during late night.  Sound, and vocals were aweful, and the band didn\'t really click together. During the whole show, nicole and I were just thinking it was a opener for the show tonight, and we also spread the word around, so hopefully that will get more people to show up in Hartford.

[leith]

This thread is hilarious.
RAQ is actually a tight ass band with tons of personality and a rabid fanbase.
Too bad you caught an off night.
 I will admit they have those a lot more than The Breakfast but The Breakfast has it\'s share of shows with front row ragers and then people just kickin\' in the rest of the venue.
Seen it at Toad\'s a couple of weeks ago.

[Me!]

I"ll never really appreciate RAQ after seeing them live at Camp Barefoot in July.  They were an hour late for a 2-hour gig, sound checked for a full 30 minutes, and the house music was still playing for the first 5 minutes when they finally decided to play the their weak set.  I know we all have bad days/nights, but it just made me lose a lot of respect for the band.  I\'m sure they\'re great, but I don\'t think I\'ll ever see them live again :shrug:

I was with Todd and Robyn at this show, it was an absolute travesty.  The Breakfast set up and sound checked in ~15min.  Superb professionalism.  Then they came up and played one of the best 3-piece shows I saw.  Then RAQ came diddly dallied for 45 min or so, and played what was in my opinion a piss poor set.  It really showed me somthing about this band.  I had seen them a few times before and was never overly amazed.  They\'re good enough, but yeah no breakfast.  But then who is.

[Wolfman]

Sorry to hear about these bad Raq shows.  They\'re usually really good, and have been so every time I\'ve seen them.  

It is a compliment to The Breakfast that there really aren\'t any stories out there about bad shows.  Occasioanlly a show won\'t draw so well for any number of reasons, which happens to any band, but they always, always, always deliver the same high caliber product regardless of the crowd.  I just take it as standard protocol but there\'s something commendable about it once you step back and realize that other bands might take a night off sometimes.

Like I said, RAQ has been great for me, but I\'ve experienced the same curious "night-off phenomenon" with moe. 4 times.  I have been to 4 moe. shows that I would use that word "travesty" to describe.  And obviously they\'re a kickass band, look at their fanbase and accolades.  But just for me personally, I\'ve had no luck with them at all and consequently I\'m not a fan.

[Klout]

A Ferrari (bfast) kicks the ass of a Dodge Caravan (Raq), [-]until you need to bring 4 kids to a soccer game[/-].

fixed

In some cases I\'ve seen RAQ referred to like they were Breakfast\'s musical equals,

Noobs. :lol:

[wildcoyote]

RAQ with a Tim/Jordan sit in doing James Gang\'s Funk 49 remains one of the most memorable performances I\'ve ever seen.
RAQ can bring it, and they seem to get along very well with the Breakfast. Wishful thinking but they should do a national run together.  Seems both of these talented bands is susceptable to a doze, so double the draw.

[Todd]

Yeah, call it The Double dOOz Tour.

[psychjosh]

RAQ = Great band & Great guys.
So tough to compare as everyone on this thread is 99% partial to the Breakfast. I\'m sure a raq site would have a different spin entirely.

BTW -  they happen to be really good friends of the band. They go through the same bullshit TB does and the bands pair off together very well.

I \'ll end with this .. if you ever get the chance to see both bands on 1 bill you\'ll be way bummed to miss it.

[ulee]

A bit of astrological 2 cents:

The "off night" may be related to the moon.  The moon affects everyone, on a subtle level, as it travels through different signs of the zodiac every 2 days or so.  As the moon moves through the signs, there are blocks of time (sometimes minutes, hours, or days) in which it is not aspecting any sign and is said to be "void of course."  During these times, there can be sort of a free-floating feeling of things not clicking or just not getting off the ground.  People\'s energy is not really focused in any one particular way.  It\'s also a bad time to start/do something important.  I decided to check online whether the moon was "in the void" during Friday night 11/9, and it was.  All the way through the day on Saturday, then it went into Sagittarius last night.  I have noticed this happen at music shows during void periods before, where some detail is off, and it doesn\'t get fixed, and nothing really gets going.