Hurray for the Riff Raff and NNAMDÏ at Music Hall of Williamsburg

This past week, on March 5th, Hurray for the Riff Raff and NNAMDÏ descended upon the Music Hall of Williamsburg for a triumphant night of music and community. A torchbearer of the Chicago DIY scene, NNAMDÏ continues to retain his prolific edge—churning out project after project while also co-running Sooper Records. Last month, we not only rated Hurray for the Riff Raff’s new album, The Past Is Still Alive, a 9.5/10—our highest score given out since Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters in 2020—but we named Alynda Segarra our final cover star of February.

“Segarra has confessed to fearing their lived experiences were too much for the music industry, too real to take center stage in their work, but on this album, they buck those fears with radical honesty. Quasi-title-track ‘Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)’ charts memories of shoplifting for food and childhood beach vacations, the healing powers of Florida water and Narcan; ‘Buffalo’ compares a new relationship to extinct and endangered species, a pairing of personal and environmental turmoil that still holds fast to optimism,” critic Annie Parnell wrote.

“This is a link back to Life On Earth, the sound of growing through asphalt. The Past Is Still Alive, meanwhile, is the sound of making a home in a wasteland,” she continues. “‘I’ll jump off this cliff with you, if it means we will survive,’ Segarra promises on ‘Buffalo,’ ready to endure the impossible for the sake of a better future. What’s particularly striking is the lightness Segarra delivers these desperate lines with. In their hands, the trauma of the present day is a prelude to the possibilities of a better tomorrow.”

“The Past Is Still Alive is, at its radiating core, a measure of storytelling determined to be kind and gentle and affectionate towards the souls that exist on the fringe of worlds the music industry has barely dared to sing about,” music editor Matt Mitchell wrote in their cover story. “16 years after self-releasing their first Hurray for the Riff Raff album, Segarra has a vibrant pen and a confident sense of trust where now, finally they can give people like Miss Jonathan the story they deserve and do it in such a nuanced way that isn’t rooted in misery. ‘Everything is advancing, I love to see you out dancing,’ Segarra rings out on “Colossus of Roads,” amid falling back in-touch with a gratitude towards writing. ‘There’s women up in the mountains, we could be up there if we could get up there.’ It’s a mark of not just joy, but a sense of growth that comes after years of inexplicable loss, heartbreak and organizing.”

“…a lifetime of touring, loss and curiosity has caught up with Segarra deep into their still-moving career. Perhaps our most important disciple of the Springsteen school of raucous misfits forgotten by the system, Hurray for the Riff Raff has written what is, in my opinion, the most important album of the 2020s so far—a stark, multi-dimensional account of boundless communal love, meditations on class disparity (Segarra admits on “Hourglass” to having eaten out of the garbage when they were living on the streets) and despair and fear synthesized into a container of relentless courage,” they continue. “The Past Is Still Alive is a manifest, a readiment to remain alive as the world burns all around us.”

You can see pictures from Hurray for the Riff Raff and NNAMDÏ’s sets at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on March 5th, taken by Emilio Herce, below.