If you haven’t already heard of Raury, the 18-year-old from Atlanta, you’re really missing out! This eclectic singer-songwriter paid us a visit at U Street Music Hall the Friday of Easter weekend.
With only the release of his EP “Indigo Child,” he’s already included in major music festival lineups for the year, like Coachella, Firefly, and Bonnaroo– not to mention he’s headlining his own tour as well.
At U Hall, Raury took to the stage and tried to introduced himself– over the loud, cheering fans. The soaked crowd was pretty riled up from the opening act Ace Cosgrove, who threw water off stage and moshed with them. Raury introduced his set list with “Higher,” which he had collaborated with SBTRKT with on the album “Wonder Where We Are.” The flashing red lights on the stage went along perfectly, with the raw emotion you could capture through the tone of his voice.
A few tracks later, to the delight of a fan who had been shouting his request since the beginning of the show to “Play ‘Cigarette Song’, play ‘Cigarette Song’!”, Raury finally obliged. This song is one of Raury’s more popular tracks on his EP, along with “Superfly.” He began strumming to the tunes with his fellow bandmates, looking out to the crowd from under his hat that has really begun to be characterized as a part of him. The melody of the song is a little more lighter than his other works, so you could really hear every lyric he crooned out clearly.
He closed his performance with a re-mastered version of “God’s Whisperer” (this one leaning more toward the rock genre). Afterwards, he left the stage, and the crowd was left cheering to hear more. After continuous demands for an encore , Raury finally came back. He stood there for a minute, attempting to speak into the microphone that was, to his dismay, turned off. U Hall was already getting ready for the late show. Though the fans were disappointed, he didn’t seem to care and just hopped off the stage and into the crowd, which really amped everyone up. The swarm of people moved in closer to him as he swirled momentarily in this utter chaos– that was until a ruthless fan went in and made an attempt for his signature hat.
HOLY SHIT @Raury. Thank you for restoring my faith in music pic.twitter.com/oDXQkf8IIE
— JeNNy $einfeld (@SpicedUpTweetz) April 4, 2015
With a sound that ranges from folk to R&B, do yourself a favor and listen to Raury! He is someone who portrays a rare quality that music listeners of many genres can appreciate, with meaningful lyrics and catchy hooks, all wrapped up with some young, Southern soul.
Article by Christina Kualii