We Ragazzi

We Ragazzi hold an awkward place in my heart. As a workaday Chicago band, they were ripping off jagged, spastic, howlin’ dance numbers way back in ’99, putting out Suicide Sound System, a defining moment in the Chicago music scene’s millennial, post-altcraze meltdown. Then they committed heresy. After breaking up, reforming, releasing a slowed-down sophomore album (The Ache), and getting a modicum of national (indie) press, We Ragazzi moved to New York. I know We Ragazzi are just trying to make a go of it, so I don’t have anything against them in particular, just a growing annoyance at the fact that every great Chicago band, filmmaker, artist, actor, or writer who manages to get known runs away to the NYC as fast as they can pack their buddy’s van. So you can see my dilemma when trying to form a prejudice with which to view this show. We Ragazzi: hometown heroes or no-good deserters? I’d just have to see. The first thing I noticed was a half-full Empty Bottle. These are all the people that could make it to We Ragazzi’s homecoming? I was beginning to understand why they left. I then endured an all-out, amps-on-fire rock assault from the openers, Southern Records’ Tight Phantomz, who are indeed tight. They’re on tour, and you should see them. I would praise them more here, but I want to get on to We Ragazzi and I’m punishing the Phantomz for their awful band name. New York has treated We Ragazzi well, with Tony Ronaldo (vocals, guitar), Colleen Burke (keys), and Alianna Kalaba (drums) all looking hale, hearty, and hip. They reeled off a set’s worth of gems from The Ache and the recently-released Wolves With Pretty Lips to a crowd who, much to my rage, was seemed more worried about drink specials than about Ronaldo’s wide-mouthed, smoke-doused banshee shriek. C’est la Saturday night in a Chicago rock club. We Ragazzi’s material was markedly slowed down from the pitched no wave freakout of Suicide Sound System, but the more considered, laid-back feel, helped along by the steady, rolling rhythm of Burke and Kalaba, are well-suited to Ronaldo’s voice, alternating his persona between a punk rock yelper and a lounge act smoothie. Of note were the new album’s “Making You All Queens Tonight”, an act Ronaldo promised to visit upon the crowd, and the Chitown breakdown of Suicide Sound System‘s “I Wanna New Crush to Live For”, played by request at the end of the show after Ronaldo wisely opted out of an encore. So really, I don’t care if We Ragazzi broke out for New York. I don’t blame ’em after a show like this, where I saw another good band play their hearts out for another apathetic crowd. Shame, shame, Chicago. You can do better.