Hurray for the Riff Raff are on tour now with Anjimile in support of their great new album Life On Earth, and that tour hit band leader Alynda Segarra's former hometown of NYC for a show at Brooklyn's Elsewhere on Friday (4/15). The sold-out show was packed well before HFTRR went on, and as soon as they did hit the stage, Alynda & co commanded the 675-cap room with arena-sized presence. They stuck almost entirely to the new album, but did reach back to 2017's The Navigator for a few tracks (including the crowd-pleasing encore of "Pa'lante"), and the new songs sounded great. The new songs range from folky Americana to synthy art pop, and HFTRR pulled it all off seamlessly live, with Alynda moving around the stage in full-on frontperson mode whenever they weren't playing guitar. Alynda also added more context to the songs with stories about some of the inspirations on the new album, including how they began working with Freedom for Immigrants and met two refugees who gave Alynda their blessings to tell their stories with the song "Precious Cargo." Stories like those only elicited even more cheers from the crowd, who were loving and supportive all night.
I missed most of Anjimile (but did catch the tail-end, and he sounded great, TV on the Radio cover included) and first opener Amelia Jack, but photos of all three sets by Amanda Hatfield (including one of HFTRR's setlist) continue below...