Flashes of Panic

Oh, I don’t even know where to start… I got home an hour ago, still flying on this show. With email and the cat both crying for attention, I’m coming down now, it’s all wearing off. But I remember how it felt, and if he was on again tomorrow night I’d be right over there. Wow.

I tried to get to the Horse fairly early, because I wanted to stake out seats for the Illustrator and his girlfriend as well; they were going to be late. I didn’t quite pull it off; I wound up right at the top of the balcony stairs, if you know the Horse. Not the best view, but I was happy there were still three seats together. The hostess warned me that the show was full, and she might have to seat a single with us; I was fine with that, I’ve been there. Not much later, she seated Seth with me. He was up from Connecticut—clearly more excited for this show than I was, since all I’d done was sit in traffic in Hadley for half an hour.

The opener, Willy Mason, was pretty good, but I wasn’t really focused on him; I was watching for the rest of my party and wondering if I’d be able to see Josh through the little girl (three?) in the booth at the rail, who was standing on her seat rather than looking through the rail. The Illustrator turned up without his girlfriend, who couldn’t get away from her office holiday party, and before the main set started the hostess seated two more people at our table. What a crew we were.

The crowd was clearly in to Josh Ritter, and I came away a convert. In concert, Ritter has so much more depth of sound than his recordings do, and he is obviously having a lot of fun. He had a small band—bass, drums, and keys—and they just tore into the songs like it was dinnertime and they’d missed lunch. They played songs I didn’t think very much of and made them great. They also hit all my favorites, most of Hello Starling (no “Bone of Song,” which disappointed the Illustrator,) five of the best from Golden Age of Radio including an uptempo “Harrisburg,” and a few I didn’t know—new, I guess. He introduced Wings as a song about the Shaolin Puritans from Massachusetts who migrated west to star in the early kung-fu movies in the 1850s, but wound up in Northern Idaho. (“This is an alternate history. A folk history.”) By the time he played “Snow is Gone,” he had most of the room on their feet (which is pretty rare for the Horse) and it’s been a while since I’ve heard it as loud in there as it was when he finished. There’s no snow right now (it’s raining, actually) but I felt like I’d hear birds chirping if I went outside during the song. It’s dark now, and for four minutes or so, we all wanted spring so much we could taste it. What a performer.

Two encores, the first, “California” (I think) by himself and away from the mike. Even the loud folks in the corner hushed. The Horse seems to be good for that; it’s not the first time I’ve seen it done there. Then he brought the band out for “Other Side.”

I left feeling wound up and excited. It was a really good show from a really good performer; I’d gone in thinking, ah, I like some of his stuff, and I left with a new set of favorite songs.

Now Playing: Snow Is Gone from Hello Starling by Josh Ritter