The Ruby Suns

by Steven in Album Reviews, Concert Reviews, Musician Reviews, Reviews

It’s always risky to pass judgment on a band solely based on their live performances without ever having listened to their recordings. Especially when you convince yourself after a live set to buy the bands’ CD’s. We’ve all been there: “God this band is good…so tight, so energetic. I’m going to buy their album after the show…” Then you realize that the band that you’ve just spent the last 45 minutes of your life watching loses quite a bit of…of something…in their studio recordings. It’s unfortunate. So unfortunate, in fact, that for the next however many minutes, my desperation will be channeled into writing this blog post. The band in question? The Ruby Sun. The venue? Terrace lawnparties. The CD? Sea Lion.

I first saw this band from New Zealand opening for The Walkmen. From the moment they walked on stage, I liked them. Ryan Mcphun, the lead singer and guitarist, was both wearing what looked like a tye-died animal print t-shirt, and the keyboardist was wearing golden leggings that she couldn’t quite pull off. Fabulous! I love bands that don’t take themselves waaay too seriously. This was starting off to be a promising show.

And oh…it was. The Ruby Suns played an amazing pop set with confidence. The songs mostly consisted of feel-good experiment pop songs a la Of Montreal. But sans Kevin Barnes’s stage antics/nudity. The songs contained interesting harmonies, employed great instrumentation, and had original structures.

Mcphun also had great stage presence. During each song, he played this little drum set that consisted of a high hat, toms, a snare, and some broken cymbals while stretching out his neck to reach the microphone. This was in addition to the guitar riffs that he was looping at any free moment he had away from the drum set. A very impressive performance indeed…

So, as is customary after an enjoyable set, I went to buy a recording from the band. I am all about supporting artists, so I thought to myself: “Self, since you enjoyed that show so much, you should probably buy a copy of their album. They would be way excited.” First sign of warning: they weren’t excited. At all. About anything. Now, I don’t ask a lot from artists after they have played a show, they’re probably tired (and understandably)…but sometimes, it’s really nice to at least say hello to somebody who is buying your CD. Maybe a “Thank you” could also be thrown in there. But instead, I got the cold shoulder. From all three members. They quickly huddled back into their van and fans awkwardly waited around as The Walkmen prepared to take the stage. I lost interest after about 5 minutes, but when The Ruby Suns did re-emerge, it was strictly to do business. “$10.” “$8.” “We only have that one in medium.”

In any case, my friend who DID buy the CD let me have a listen. And, I have to say, I was pretty disappointed. I was looking forward to listening to a record that would somehow capture some of the weird sounds and fun-times-being-had feeling that I experienced at the show on the Terrace lawn, but instead I was greeted with a flat-sounding recording whose banality was rivaled only by the band’s post-set interactions. The driving drums that made the music so fun to listen to live sounded weak in the mix, and the reverb-laden vocals sounded washed-out and mundane rather than rich and ethereal. Also, it sounded on the recordings as if acoustic guitar was used on most of the songs; however, when playing live, The Ruby Suns play electric guitars going through a string of effect boxes and loop pedals that create an amazing soundscape/texture that is lacking from the studio recording.

Bottom line: This band is amazing live. Their songs are interesting, they’re fun to watch, and, maybe most importantly, they’re fun to listen to. However, the band fails to deliver the same kind of punch in a studio effort.

I haven’t been this disappointed since I found out that a capella cover groups existed outside of academia.