Marking the penultimate show of their 2024 European tour, Ratboys’ performance at Belgrave Music Hall is one to remember. Over the last six weeks, the Chicago indie-rockers have covered ample ground, from their initial North American dates, three headline gigs at Brixton’s Windmill, to festival features at Primavera Sound and Best Kept Secret. Now, with a short break in sight, the overwhelming feeling between band and audience is of humble gratitude.
In 2023’s The Window, the band’s “post-country” sound reaches new heights, expanding the sonic palette in weirder, noisier, and more infectious ways. Meanwhile, Julia Steiner’s songwriting is more potent than ever, a continuous exercise of introspection that navigates the strife of lockdown existence and the fleeting fragility of freedom in the aftermath.
As such, The Window is, well, an artistic window peering into a profound period in the band’s lives. For this particular show, the celebratory atmosphere is supplemented by the emotive support sets of Leeds-based Wormboys and Muncie Girls’ Lande Hekt, both acts respectively wearing their noisy hearts on sleeves.
In turn, Ratboys commence their performance with The Window opener, ‘Making Noise for the Ones You Love’. Marcus Nuccio’s apache drumming, mirroring a thumping heartbeat, gets blood flowing across the Belgrave. When the rest of the band joins, the motorik percussion drifts into a slacker guitar groove, seamlessly interchanging throughout.
Despite the country boom within contemporary indie rock, the Chicagoans are no bandwagoners. The subsequent ‘Morning Zoo’ is a testament to this familiarity, Julia’s ruminations on the small wonder of quotidian life supplemented by a woozy, yee-hawing riff. Dave Sagan’s effortless guitar style opens new worlds, transporting us from an elevated industrial room in the heart of Leeds to the vast American west.
The seamless transition into ‘It’s Alive!’ further reinforces these pastoral, escapist qualities. Sean Neumann’s bass and Nuccio’s drums interlock, beckoning the arrival of clear blue skies, Steiner’s tentative vocals mirroring the sun’s reveal. In turn, Sagan’s emphatic riff cuts through the image like a distant vapour trail, wherein a long lost visual memory comes into focus.
True to the title, the Belgrave is well and truly alive(!) by this point. Julia reminisces on the band’s history in Leeds, spanning four shows over ten years, each one slightly increasing in numbers. ‘My Hands Grow’ pertinently follows, arpeggiating guitars and pillowy percussion giving way to a rhythmical tale of maturation. There’s no doubt the Ratboys of 2010 – starting as a guitar duet between Julia and Dave – would struggle to believe the crowd before them now -“life in a vivid dream”, indeed.
Time’s passing and the honouring of those lost is at the forefront of Ratboys’ heartfelt catalogue, as crowd-pleaser ‘Elvis in the Freezer’ shows. This is the second pet tribute of the night, with Lande Hekt delivering a lovely ballad dedicated to her cat, Lola. In keeping with the reflective mood, Julia tells the story of her cat Elvis, briefly frozen after his passing to ensure Julia could make the funeral. Balancing the tender line between weird and wonderful, ‘Elvis’ wholesomely delivers, the crowd moved accordingly.
Talk of pets gives way to some goofy interaction between band and crowd. Ratboys. Supported by Wormboys. Supported by Ducks Ltd, recently interviewed by Soundsphere, for the North American shows. You get the picture. Julia speculates the possibilities of this anthropomorphic indie-rock universe. “Maybe all the different boys.. I don’t know, horseboys, frogboys, you name it, could come together for a single show… It’s an idea.”
Upon uttering this show-for-the-ages into reality, Nuccio continues where they left off, drumsticks akimbo, with a country-twanged rallying cry – “aaaaaalllllllll tha’ boysss!”. The appropriately roots-driven ‘Go Outside’ is underway, conveying sonic blues and poetic greenery like that of a vivid summer hike. Throughout, it’s clear to see why the band are feeling this particular tune at the moment, as referenced in our previous Q&A.
When it comes to feeling, ‘The Window’ delivers an emotional sucker punch that is sure to feed on the wholesome harmony between band and crowd. Written from the perspective of Julia’s grandfather, the song beautifully dramatises his final, socially-distanced farewell to his wife through a nursing-home window. With its singalong hook and powerful instrumental dynamics, a hair or two inevitably raises. In spite of the biographical lyrics, the crowd are able to recite the power-pop ballad word-for-word, making for a perfect bridging of the personal and universal.
Goosebumps abound, ‘Black Earth, WI’ summons another whirlwind of emotion. Driven by the aimless highways of America’s Midwest, the eight-minute epic is characterised by loose, nocturnal, psychedelic properties, culminating in Sagan’s grandiose guitar solo. Treading the delicate line between formal indulgence and virtuosic expression, the Wilco-inspired odyssey is breathlessly brilliant, bringing time itself to an effective standstill.
Indeed, Sagan’s controlled cacophony provides the perfect snapshot of the here and now. As he meditatively chips away, indifferent to his surroundings, the rest of the band settle into the groove and reflect, embracing solace over showmanship. The harmony of this moment – between Sagan and band, band and audience – speaks to a group at their creative peak, expressive without the need for words.
This unpretentious dynamic is what Ratboys do best. Free of ego, the collective spirit is that of a kind, well-oiled group of mates doing what they do best. In the process, the Chicago foursome capture the ineffable feeling found in any great gig; that of experiencing the not-yet-experienced.
In assembling one of modern indie rock’s most consistent discographies, the Ratboys live experience comes as no surprise. With a new album in the works, as revealed by Julia herself, and that “allllllll the boys!!” gig somewhere on the utopic horizon, Leeds can expect the quartet’s return soon rather than later.
More speculative, perhaps, is under what scenario their return can be expected: new album, new sound, new audiences, perhaps. After fourteen years of honing their craft, Ratboys will remain true to themselves, and the rest of the world will follow.
Setlist
‘Making Noise for the Ones You Love’, ‘Morning Zoo’, ‘It’s Alive!’, ‘My Hands Grow’, ‘The Stanza’, ‘Elvis in the Freezer’, ‘I Want You (Fall 2010)’, ‘Go Outside’, ‘Space Blows’, ‘No Way’, ‘The Window’, ‘I Go Out at Night’, ‘Black Earth, WI’, ‘Alien With a Sleep Mask On’, ‘Look To’
