Ratatat escape winter storm Jonas inside the Electric Factory

Ratatat | photo by Morgan Smith for WXPN | www.phobymo.com

There’s something to be said of a band that can pack a venue despite a blizzard dropping ten tons of unplowed Fuck You on every intersection in the city. This past Sunday night, with our hands thawing and eyes adjusting in the Electric Factory’s vestibule, chattering teeth gave way to clenched jaws as the excitement of seeing just such a band ­as Brooklyn’s Ratatat ­hit.

The crowd outstretched before the stage was too perfect, full of the sort of eccentrics you might expect to find wading through waist-deep snowdrifts for a psychedelic experience. Ruddy throngs draped in fur, galaxy-print spandex and at least a few in full-body animal costumes ­thrashing along with milder hipster companions underneath a lattice of ice-blue lasers with surreal images beaming onto towering glass plates at either side.

Leading in with “Pricks of Brightness” off of their newest album Magnifique, Ratatat’s neo-psychedelic sound and visuals underscored just how spatially the Brooklyn duo’s ethereal 8-bit maelstroms are constructed. The weaving, scintillating jams were flanked by avian fractals, dancing loops of chain, and spiraling plaster busts intertwined with golden skulls. Alternating between old favorites like “Loud Pipes” and more halcyon grooves like “Magnifique,” Mike Stroud’s back-bends and guitar solos were carried on by the driving bass grooves of Evan Mast, finally capping the performance with two encores – “Gettysburg” and “Sheepish.”

Setlist

Pricks of Brightness
Loud Pipes
Grape Juice City
Magnifique
Cream on Chrome
Lex
Falcon Jab
Mirando
Supreme
Sunblocks
Nostrand
Abrasive
Neckbrace
Wildcat
Nightclub Amnesia
Seventeen Years
Gettysburg (encore)
Sheepish (encore)