You’ve read about The Vita Ruins on DCist before. You may have even seen them perform at our 4th Unbuckled concert. When all that buzz was going on about the band, they’d only had a few (literally — Unbuckled was their third show) performances under their belt. Since then they’ve built up a reputation that’s allowed them quite a bit of luck in booking shows and getting people talking. But the Virginia natives are really starting to grow into the publicity they’ve backed into and deserve another look.

Last Friday night, we caught the band play as part of the Six Points Music Festival at the Rock & Roll Hotel. Sandwiched in between The Sentiment and The Dance Party, it was a loud night — in a good way. After listening to their EP (which you’ll learn in the interview, they’re not very fond of), we expected a much less energetic, much more introverted performance than we received. The Vita Ruins — with the exception of their bassist, who stood with his back to the audience most of the set — seem very at home on the stage. Their dark but dancey sound was a delight to the audience who didn’t stop moving for a moment of their set.

Front man Tim Kratzer and his counterpart Greg Balleza mirror setups, each with a keyboard, an electric guitar and a microphone in their arsenal. Backed by Mike Seaner on drums and Dave Phillips on bass, they ballance out the stormy lyrics and heavy ambience with quick rhythms and a droning bass line. Though fraught with emotion and talk of suicide and other not-so-sunshiney topics, we couldn’t keep still during the Interpol-esque set.

Photos by Kyle Gustafson