Flashes of Panic

I’ve been remiss in not mentioning that I was able to see Josh Ritter on Saturday night in a somewhat under-full Troy Music Hall. (Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, actually, which sort of captures Troy in a nutshell: the naming rights to their big venue belong to an institution which no longer exists.) This isn’t quite as close to home as when I could walk to the Somerville Theater, but it’s not bad on a snowy night.

I’m not going to go on at length about the show, given that Doug Rice has already done so in great detail. I was a little underwhelmed by the size of the crowd, and I tend to agree with Doug that Josh is a better show when he’s not in an all-seated venue, but the tradeoff Saturday seemed to be that the Troy Music Hall is an astoundingly ornate and impressive venue in both appearance and sound. Josh and his band were clearly thrilled to be playing there even if most of us did spend the show sitting down passively watching. Also on the plus side was the full-size Steinway which, I think, affected the set list somewhat.

I’ve mentioned before that I always leave Josh’s shows with some new favorite songs, and this time I’m looking forward to a new album, in particular “The Curse” and “Another New World.”