When Katie first gave me a cd of Josh Ritter songs, I mixed them in with a bunch of other songs I didn't know. Anytime one of his songs would come on, I'd wonder "Who is this? This is good." And I would look down and see that it was Josh Ritter again. His songs sound so different from each other, I often didn't assume it was him because of style.
I went to a concert of his in Town Hall, and it proved to be even MORE of a diverse set of styles. One minute you're in some kind of circus, and the next in the African grasslands, then in a bass-heavy hell with "Black Hole," and then you get the ultimately creepy Edgar Allen Poe song. Actually, someone came out on stage and read a Poe poem while Josh took a break and it was very haunting, especially with the music. One song, he even did in the dark. He had to beg the lights people to turn off ALL the lights on the stage. And that's another great thing about the writing--these are songs with stories, about characters, and are intelligent and clever. That's the kind of music I'm driven toward. Catchy melody and singing in tune and all that are important, but if the writing isn't unique, I'm that interested.
I went to a concert of his in Town Hall, and it proved to be even MORE of a diverse set of styles. One minute you're in some kind of circus, and the next in the African grasslands, then in a bass-heavy hell with "Black Hole," and then you get the ultimately creepy Edgar Allen Poe song. Actually, someone came out on stage and read a Poe poem while Josh took a break and it was very haunting, especially with the music. One song, he even did in the dark. He had to beg the lights people to turn off ALL the lights on the stage. And that's another great thing about the writing--these are songs with stories, about characters, and are intelligent and clever. That's the kind of music I'm driven toward. Catchy melody and singing in tune and all that are important, but if the writing isn't unique, I'm that interested.
It was a very visual performance. Where many bands have a light show, these guys had a bunch of giant lightbulbs behind them pulsing to the music. The band was fantastic! Animated yet with seemingly heavy limbs, kind of like puppets. They'd run around the stage to switch instruments part way through songs. There was a grand piano, a synth keyboard, guitars, electric bass, acoustic bass, drumset (often with up to three people playing on it at once), something I didn't recognise (looked like a harpsichord, sounded like a flute?), and yes, I'm happy to say, even a harmonica. When Josh pulled out the harmonica at the end of the show, he earned bonus points.
Josh said he moved to Brooklyn, and sometimes the city gets you down. People agreed. Then he said sometimes Brooklyn gets you down too. Everyone protested "Booooo!" He said, "Well, sometimes that F train..." And then everyone laughed and agreed, "...Yeah..."
The biggest applause came from when the bass player, who is pretty awesome in his own right, suddenly took lead vocals during one verse and man did he have a powerful voice!
For the last few songs, everyone stood up. He ended with To The Dogs or Whoever, which is an energetic piece that you can see below. This is a good example of the sort of crazy energy the show has. Josh grins the whole time. Even from the very very back row (but dead center!), you can see his teeth. Everyone just seems like they're having such a good time.
I only stayed for a song and a half of the encore because it was going on 11 and I was uptown and had to get some sleep for a big interview today. Whoops, did I let that slip?
Anyway, check out this video, even if you maybe don't care, give it a try. If you want to know how he sounds in the recordings, you can get his new song free off iTunes or have a listen to a variety of his work on MySpace.
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