The loss of the biggest football game of the season weighed heavy on Baton Rouge as I walked into the Spanish Moon for Born Ruffian’s Show last night. All of that sadness instantly vanished when their opening act, Young Rivals, came on stage. They brought with them a lighthearted mellow sound which made it hard not to bop your head and back forth in rhythm to their music. All of the band members were wearing outfits made out of a glitter material that made them hard not watch. In between their songs, they gave us their condolences about the game’s loss and offered their songs as gifts. The audience happily accepted and enjoyed their vibrant performance full of psychedelic sounds and thrilling melodies. A band originally from Canada, Young Rivals was on tour with the Born Ruffians promoting their fourth album Interior Light.
   When Young Rivals left, they took with all of them sadness that night had already brought. Although the audience was small, it was full of excitement when the Born Ruffians came onto the stage. Born Ruffians came out with such a high energy that you couldn’t help but jump to their level. They played songs off their new album which was a delight to listen to live. It was very chipper heartfelt music, full of three note guitar melodies constantly accompanying Lalonde’s vocals (lead singer).  They played crowd favorites such as Needle and Ocean’s Deep. In between songs, both singer (Lalonde) and bassist (DeRosier) talked about how happy they were to be there. DeRosier even had the audience clapping and jumping up and down during some of their songs.
After they left, the crowd chanted encore for a full minutes until they came back with faces full of admiration for this small Baton Rouge crowd. They played a handful of songs while dancing and playing around on stage with each other. Lalonde really let his personality show during the encore by thinking out loud with audience and even taking song requests from the audience. They kept it very light hearted and fun which was perfect remedy Baton Rouge needed on this day filled with defeat. Born Ruffians gave Death Valley something to smile about on Saturday night. 
-Albagdadi