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Contributed Photo Denmark natives The Ravonettes are finding great success in the United States with their new album Chain Gang of Love and their opening gig on The Strokes' U.S. tour. [Click to enlarge]

The rash of great concerts this week continues when The Strokes come to Portland April 15 for a show at the Roseland. Opening the show is a new group from Denmark, The Ravonettes.

A band is only as good as the sum of its parts, and the Ravonettes add up like this: Sune Rose Wagner on guitar and vocals, Sharin Foo on bass and vocals, Manoj Ramdas on guitar and jazz drummer Jakob Hoyer.

The band has many new things going for them and is quite happy to be performing in a different country.

"When we started back home our intention was always to get out of the country and play," Wagner said.

The Ravonettes' promising first EP, Whip It On, was named Best Rock Album of the Year at the Danish Music Awards, though Wagner admits the group got off to a rocky start.

"We got a bad reception at first, but anticipated that," Wagner said.

The band's first album, Chain Gang of Love, was produced by Richard Gottehrer. Gottehrer has been in the business of selling records for quite a while. He has penned such classic songs as "My Boyfriend's Back," and "I Want Candy," and collaborating on the song "That Great Love Sound" on The Ravonettes' new album.

"We got to where we are so fast," Wagner said. "It's so much happening at once."

Wagner isn't exaggerating about that. The Ravonettes ended a 14-month tour last year, and are now on the road again.

"We met The Strokes guitarist at the last New York show," Wagner said. "He liked Buddy Holly and I liked Buddy Holly."

At that meeting the group first started talking about touring together, something planned more as a future endeavor than for the very next year.

But 2004 found the two groups on the road together much sooner than expected.

So much time on the road with The Strokes keeps The Ravonettes from getting much done besides performances.

"I can't record on the tour," Wagner said. "We just try to have a good time."

Wagner and Foo do get in some special shows on the tour, though, such as a recent stop where just the two of them played.

"Sharon and I just did a show in New York that went really well," Wagner said. "We interacted with the crowd a lot."

In a less-intimate setting, like the 1,400 person-capacity Roseland Theatre, The Ravonettes tend to just stick to music.

"We don't say that much," Wagner said. "We don't really know what to say."

You can catch The Ravonettes solo at Dante's in Portland at 9:30 p.m. on April 17 for $10, or two days earlier at 8:15 p.m. at The Roseland for $25, with headliner The Strokes.

"Of course, you have certain bands that would be cool to tour with," Wagner said of their tour-mates. "And sometimes you just get lucky."

Robin Canfield is a Diversions writer for The Daily Barometer. He can be reached at canfielr@onid.orst.edu.

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