NFV Song Spotlight: RIAH's Prom

RIAH (the project of Mariah McManus Goss) drew the crowd at Bar Lubitsch for a WFNM. That is not an exaggeration. Just a few minutes prior to her set, a group of people walked into the venue and then another and another. (For those who don't know about Bar Lubitsch, the bar is split into two rooms. The back room is the venue. The front room is the bar.) Too much info: I was heading to the bathroom after another singer on the bill had finished his set and all these people started entering the venue. After getting done with my business, I went back inside the venue and the place was packed and I needed to squeeze my way back to the front so that I could take my photos and video. Grant Owens of WFNM was literally giddy with the size of the crowd. It was definitely one of the larger crowds at a Bar Lubitsch WFNM night. 

RIAH at Bar Lubitsch

Goss went on stage with a bit of the nerves. Towards the end of her dreamy song "Bed" she forgot the lyrics, but like a pro she simply laughed in off, shook her hands, and told the audience, "You make me nervous." There were another moment where she briefly forgot the words to a song. It made it all the more authentic. She must have known in advance that she sometimes forgets lyrics when she gets nervous, because her setlist had bits of her lyrics written on it. 

RIAH at Bar Lubitsch

The crowd immediately recognized the opening notes to the song "Prom" with one person yelling out that it was her favorite song. At the end of the song, she told the crowd, "Thank you so much for coming." A response came back, "Of course," which got her laughing.

RIAH at Bar Lubitsch

She mentioned that the song "Better Alone" was one of her most personal songs. Throughout the song there were "ahhs" and "oohs" "I Love You Still" had her fan base singing alongside her with great emotion, "How I love you still, but I hate you so much." 

Her biggest song to date (at least per Spotify) is a duet with shallou called "Lie." With a touch of humility, she mentioned that if you go to clubs you might have heard the song being played, but otherwise you might not have heard of it before. You sort of got the impression that she isn't much of a club person herself. The final song of the set was "can't lose you now," which she mentioned was on an episode of "Sex Lives of College Girls." She told the audience in jest to watch the episode to hear the song, not to watch the TV show. For those interest in catching that song on the show, it is featured in Season 3, episode 7.  

RIAH at Bar Lubitsch

What was my favorite song from the set? I will go with "Prom." It had an earworm of an opening played by her guitarist. As the guitar quieted down, she stepped up to the microphone with the most wistful vocals and the keyboardist played notes that floated through the air. Setting the pace was her drummer hitting the drum pad and drum cymbals. When all of those elements combined together, it raised the roof in singer-songwriter pop glory. As the song ended, the crowd screamed and clapped their approval.

A song about one's own mistakes in a relationship?

If I could see you again
If I could make you forget
If time could erase everything that I said 

It was a short six song set. I motioned to Grant Owens to ask for an encore. The crowd was all too shy (and that applies to me) to ask for one. 

Setlist: Bed, Prom, Better Alone, I Love You Still, Lie, can't lose you now.