Artist Spotlight: Ratboys
While things are getting postponed or canceled, figured I’d go bring up a band I finally got to see back in October called Ratboys. You may have seen a couple camera shots over on the Psyko Steve Instagram, but I never got around to processing everything I took until now. As a repeated tale from the past two years, they are a band that grabbed my attention over streams. For Ratboys though, it wasn’t just for their music but personality they exude. If I recall correctly, part of that included dressing up as a Ramones band for the Fest That Never Was Halloween stream. Of course, I started with their most recent album at the time, Printer’s Devil, and went from there down the Ratboys rabbit hole. It is a little bit indie rock, a little bit folk rock, and throw in a little bit of that early 90’s alternative sound too.
Then after all that anticipation built up, I got to go check Ratboys out in person for my first time over at the Valley Bar here in Phoenix. To begin, I got to give a shoutout to the rad Rutles pin on Julia’s, lead vocals, guitar strap. You could see a common fashion choice for her and Marcus, on drums, as they wore their hats for their trip into the Grand Canyon the day after.
The set was a lot of excitement and a lot of personality from all four members of Ratboys. It was like watching close friends having fun in the environment they love. That kind of chemistry in a band always makes for my favorite bands to watch perform. I have to highlight the amazing voice of Julia singing along with the wonderful guitar and bass rifts underneath from her, Dave and Sean. The set included old and new songs, from the prior mentioned Printer’s Devil to the latest release of a few re-recorded of their earliest songs on Happy Birthday, Ratboy. They appropriately closed their set out with energy on the song “Look To.” It was an awesome performance that hopefully sharing my enthusiasm, and these pictures from the show, gets you to go give Ratboys a listen too.
