The Rapture at La Zona Rosa [Show Review]

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"I think we're ready to rock now." These words, spoken by Rapture frontman Luke Jenner, came at just the right time in the band's set at La Zona Rosa. After beginning the night with two cuts off their latest album, In The Grace of Your Love (the title track and "Never Die Again"), there was a kind of uneasy feeling that the forefathers of the dance-punk movement were simply going to phone in their performance. The band seemed content to just stand at their posts and play with little to no enthusiasm.

However, the minute Jenner uttered those words, the band immediately turned any doubts around with "Pieces of The People We Love". Finally exhibiting the same kind of manic energy that many have come to expect from the band, the song marked a turning point that allowed the band to sustain momentum for the rest of the night. There was movement onstage, the band seemed looser, and the audience finally began to let go of some the inhibitions that had come with the underwhelming nature of the set's opening tracks.

The Rapture seemed like a completely different band once they hit their stride, even though they had to reach into their back catalog to find it. This made for plenty of great moments. "Get Myself Into It" saw multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Andruzzi do a sax dance that could have easily qualified him to be a member of Madness, and "The Devil" allowed Jenner his first real chance to become unhinged and tap into his inner disco diva. Meanwhile, drummer Vito Roccoforte and their much needed touring fourth member provided the feverish rhythms that led to droves of shuffling feet, and Jenner's wiry guitar tones and Andruzzi's synth flurries rounded out a sound that was both full and unmistakably their own.

Jenner proved to be a real live wire of a performer, despite his unassuming demeanor. During a blistering play-through of the band's calling card "House of Jealous Lovers," he moved all over the stage when he wasn't shrieking at the top of his lungs, faking a stage dive at one point by throwing his hands up in the air instead. The instrumental introduction to "Olio," however, gave him the chance to ease himself into a crowd surf before taking the mic to pace back and forth to opposite sides of the stage. It was easy to tell that the audience was loving every minute, as fists were pumped, hips were shook, and there were very few still bodies to be seen.

Thankfully, the enthusiasm for the band's tour through their older material carried over when they decided to finish their main set with "Come Back To Me," their first new song in nearly 45 minutes. Compared to the songs off In The Grace of Your Love at the beginning of the night, there was a lot more energy displayed on the part of the band, no doubt the result of the goodwill from the crowd and the band feeling more comfortable.

In a lengthy moment of banter at the beginning of their encore, Jenner expressed sadness for the (eventual) loss of Emo's, mentioning that the band had played some great shows there. It was fitting, then, that he urged the crowd to honor the venue, saying "I want you all to go batshit crazy right now." The audience was only too happy to oblige, dancing to "How Deep Is Your Love" and "Sail Away" just as frantically as anything else all night. While things may have gotten off to an uneasy start, the Rapture's set handily proved that they still possess the same spark that attracted so many people to them when "House of Jealous Lovers" opened the floodgates almost 10 years ago.

The Rapture: [official]