One of the first things I noticed when entering the Opera House for Thursday night’s Waxahatchee/Hurray For The Riff Raff/Bedouine show was the giant “WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER” banner up on the stage. That phrase was also printed on t-shirts available at Hurray For The Riff Raff’s merch table and it’s definitely a message many can relate to – yes, the world’s definitely a mess right now, but we are all in this thing together, so let’s all try to work to makes things better somehow.
That message could be seen clearly in Hurray For The Riff Raff’s passionate, political performance and in many of the songs the band played on this night, from “Rican Beach” to “Nothing’s Gonna Change That Girl” (introduced by singer Alynda Segarra as being about “the divine feminine energy that lives within every being”) to “Kids Who’ll Die,” a new song inspired by a Langston Hughes poem. The most powerful and memorable moment of the night, however, came right at the end of their set with the song “Pa’lante” (meaning, “go forward”) which Segarra introduced with the following words: “Pa’lante, my friends. Power to the people. We are Hurray For The Riff Raff.”
As our world becomes more and more fucked up (though hopefully not totally fucked), Alynda Segarra continues to speak out on important issues through her music and to try and effect change through her art. Phil Ochs once said (in a line which the Manic Street Preachers recently referenced in promoting their latest album Resistance Is Futile) that “In such ugly times the only true protest is beauty” – Hurray For The Riff Raff would seem to embody that way of thinking.