Last night I attended a Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band concert and it was fabulous. It was fun to be at a show where I knew so many people in the audience. And I pretty much adore Josh Ritter, as previously described, so it would have been hard for me to think the concert was bad.
But I can try to be objective. Sometimes a concert is not wholly about the artist. So many other factors come in to play: the sound, audience, place. That last one is the most vague but can be the most important. For instance, Songbird was at the show with us and commented that she thought she preferred the Josh Ritter performance at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I’m sure it was. When you’re someplace special / exciting / unique, it makes the whole thing more memorable.
The concert I was at where I hugged Josh Ritter twice was pretty awesome because I hugged Josh Ritter twice. It was also in a huge field with way too few people but it felt like the band was playing just for you.
Last night was in an awesome venue. It’s super intimate with great acoustics and a fun place for shows. Objectively speaking, if something was off about the show it was the crowd. I don’t know if it was because it was a Wednesday night, or because people were as irritated as Wonder Boy was with the girl who kept yelling to Josh really loudly. Whatever it was, the crowd wasn’t on. It wasn’t electric. I didn’t feel the energy that comes off being surrounded by a large mass of people all dancing and singing along to the same song.
It was still good though. Really good. And it was the first show where I saw a singer accomplish a very cool version of call and response. Normally there is a part of the show where the audience is singing part of a song, unless you’re The Killers and missing a huge opportunity. Last night Josh Ritter had people singing one thing while he sang another. It was beautiful.
Know what else was beautiful? Me and Josh Ritter were twins. Not really but pretty close. Here is the shirt I wore (new purchase from Target):
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