Josh Ritter - Paradiso, 31 May

Yeah, so I didn't meet my less-than-a-week deadline to post about the Josh Ritter concert, and then I remembered tonight that I still needed to do it, and now I don't really feel like writing about it, though it was a great show. (Actually I wrote this last night, Wednesday, but then Blogger was down when I went to post. And it still seems a bit fucked so I'll be glad to get this to post.) Part of that, I think, is due to the fact that the whole concert can be watched on FabChannel so it can remember the show for me and can show more than I can explain. But still, I can tell the story from my perspective.

We got a really good spot only about 1 person back and just to the right of Josh's mic. We thought we were there late enough to only see one of the openers, but they started late or something so we did see both. The first guy who played was fine, a nice Irish lad who I could imagine would sound pretty good with a full band. The second guy who played though... We were scared watching him. I had looked up his site the afternoon before the show and found out he was Swedish and was about to start a career on the Swedish football team, but quit to play music instead. And he was just... psycho. Or on something. Or something. He sang this one really long song about relationships and wanting a girl back and it felt like he was making it all up on the spot, like this is what was happening to him right now, he was touring and he found out that his girlfriend back home had dumped him and he just wanted to pour out all his anger at us. Except that when he stopped singing, he smiled. But he would yell and scream and just act insane and try to get the audience to sing along even though he's an opener. Then one guy in the crowd was singing along a lot so he got invited up on stage and copied what the singer would sing. The guy from the audience did actually have a good voice, so that was cool. Then he stood awkwardly to the side for a bit while the singer went nuts some more before he escaped back into the audience. And the singer carried on with the same song for another 5 mins or so before ending it and then that was it, he just waved and headed off the stage. It was all just weird and I could see other groups of people around us giving each other the same looks that O and I were giving each other. What was hilarious though was I jokingly said to O that it would be really scary if he came out again later to sing with Josh, and sure enough he came back out near the end or in the encore and sang an Elvis Presley cover (I had to look that up, at the time I just knew I didn't know the song and assumed it was a cover) with Josh and the band.

Josh played an awesome set that included many songs off his new album, of course, but also ones that are favourites live, like Harrisburg, Wings, and Kathleen. There was a good energy and Josh just could not stop smiling, but I think I actually preferred the last time he played in Paradiso. I'm not sure why, maybe because I remember the intensity of Harrisburg giving me chills and listening to Wings in the dark because he'd asked for the lights to be turned all the way down (which he did again, so it wasn't as new) and, I dunno, seeing him was just more impressive then. But this time was still pretty damn good and you can just feel the power Josh has over the audience (though there were the usual talkers in the back who got told off by someone for not shutting up during Wings).

Besides asking for them to turn down the lights during Wings, another thing Josh always does is play a song completely unamplified, usually at the end of the show. The first time I saw him do this, he wasn't even the headlining act, he was opening for Damien Rice, and yet the whole crowd of Paradiso went silent. An Amsterdam crowd. In Paradiso. For an opener. I think that was when I was first amazed by Josh Ritter. This time the song he played unamplified was Can't Leave This World Behind, which was good, but I would have preferred the song someone called out for him to play, California. It's a bit more upbeat. We were so close, he stood away from the mic and right in front of us, that he sounded pretty loud to us. I almost wish I was standing farther back for that song, to hear his voice spread out through the space of Paradiso.

Unfortunately we have no photos of our own this time because O's camera was confiscated. He didn't even take it out until the 3rd song, I asked him if he was going to start taking photos or what, so he got out his camera and handed it to me for a few seconds while he closed his bag. As soon as I handed it back, out of nowhere, this Paradiso sercurity guy comes up and asks O if he has a pass. O said no and said he'd put the camera away. The security guy (who we know from other shows as being a hard ass) said "nope, come with me." So he and O disappear into the crowd and O was gone for what seemed like ages. I was starting to wonder if he got kicked out and was getting pretty worried, but then he came back and said he had to check his camera. I think they were being stricter about it beacuse the show was being recorded, since O had taken photos at almost all of the other Paradiso shows we'd been to in May and had no problem. And I had seen on the screens at the front door that it said no photos this time. But they weren't taking away non-SLR cameras, which isn't really fair. If you say no photos, then make it for everyone.

It was very silly of me, but near the end of the main set, during Snow is Gone, I suddenly remembered that two of my friends who are Josh Ritter fans were meant to be at the show as well. I had told them about the concert as soon as I saw he was coming to Amsterdam, months ago, I offered to get their tickets for them, and then when the show came I completely forgot they were coming and to try to meet up with them. And then I remembered, right in the middle of one of my favourite songs, when the show was almost over. I felt horrible. But then they hadn't emailed me in the days beforehand either, so then I wondered if they had come at all in the end (they have a kid so they need to arrange a babysitter and all). But as we were leaving Paradiso and walking back to the Leidseplein, they ran and caught up to us and I told them how stupid I felt for forgetting they were going to be there as well. At least we got to say hi quickly before we all headed home.

So, after having piles of tickets in my desk drawer for months, the pile is now exhausted. We have no shows on the horizon. I had been thinking about going to see The Gossip in Rotterdam in July, but we'll be out of town when they play, which I'm actually really bummed about because I've only seen them live once, years ago, but their show left a lasting impression. I hear The Thermals are coming back, but they can be kind of samey, so I'm not as excited to see them. Unless they bring Quasi along again.