[ATTENDED: November 13, 2024] Ratboys
This was my third time seeing Ratboys in just over a year. I would have loved to have seen them before this tour (even though I love this album), just to see what they were like before. But this show was fantastic. Not quite as long as the first time I saw them (since this was a co-headlining show), but the band were tons of fun and they threw in a few songs that I hadn’t seen them play before.
They announced this show as “one more tour for 2024!” It was a short tour, and there were three co-headlining tours with Palehound.
They opened as they have each time I’ve seen them. A great opening couplet of the rocking Making Noise for the Ones You Love and the catchy Morning Zoo.
They mixed things up by throwing in a brand new song. I guess they have been so inspired by playing these songs that they are writing new ones already.
When I saw them the first time, they’d played the whole of the new album The Window. This time, they played about half of it and threw in some older favorites.
This included two songs from Painter’s Devil, the album that introduced me to them. And I was happy that they played Anj, a song they didn’t play last time.
They played 2 songs from GN, the ever-popular Elvis is in the Freezer (and she told us the story of her dead cat that inspired the song). They also played Molly from that album, which was interesting because Palehound also played a great song called Molly.
They returned to the new album with a pair of songs that they tend to play together and then gave us another brand new song, “Penny in the Lake.”
There was no encore, but they ended the set with my favorite set ending song Black Earth, WI. This song is a slow jam that stretches out eight minutes and really gives guitar wizard David Sagan a chance to solo and solo some more and yet even more. And by the end the crowd was insanely excited.
Singer/guitarist Julia Steiner is a great frontwoman. She plays a mean guitar herself and is always engaging in her storytelling.
I loved seeing them three times in short succession and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
| 2024 Underground Arts | 2024 (opener for Decemberists) | 2023 (headliner) |
| Making Noise for the Ones You Love ∏ | Making Noise for the Ones You Love ∏ | Making Noise for the Ones You Love ∏ |
| Morning Zoo ∏ | Morning Zoo ∏ | Morning Zoo ∏ |
| Know You Then (first time played live) ⇑ | It’s Alive! ∏ | Go Outside Δ |
| It’s Alive! ∏ | Elvis is in the Freezerℵ | Crossed That Line ∏ |
| Anj Ψ | The Window ∏ | Space Blows Δ |
| Elvis is in the Freezer ℵ | I Go Out at NightΨ | No Way ∏ |
| Molly ℵ | Go Outside Δ | The Window ∏ |
| Space Blows Δ | Black Earth, WI ∏ | I Go Out at Night Ψ |
| No Way ∏ | It’s Alive! ∏ | |
| The Window ∏ | Bad Reaction ∏ | |
| I Go Out at Night Ψ | Elvis is in the Freezer ℵ | |
| Go Outside Δ | I Want You (Fall 2010) ∏ | |
| Penny in the Lake ⇑ | Charles Bernstein ⊗ | |
| Black Earth, WI ∏ | Empty ∏ | |
| Break ∏ | ||
| Black Earth, WI ∏ | ||
| encore | ||
| Alien with a Sleep Mask On Ψ | ||
| Look To Ψ |
⇑ new 2024
∏ The Window (2023)
Δ Happy Birthday, Ratboy (2021)
Ψ Printer’s Devil (2020)
ℵ GN (2017)
⊗ AOID (2015)
I Just Read About That... 
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