Jonathan Richman at the Society for Ethical Culture

I attended the very entertaining Jonathan Richman show on a gorgeous Tuesday evening at the Concert Hall of the Society for Ethical Culture. While certainly well-aware and appreciative of his musical history, I was previously a casual listener. I wasn't in the group of Jonathan Richman afficionados. Or, at least, I wasn't until last night.

Wow, just wow. The Concert Hall was a perfect setting for this show - intimate, personal, intense. Jonathan's unique style and the intensity of his life philosophy shone through in a show fully appreciated by his many long-time fans. Even if his set consisted almost entirely of his last three albums ("it has to be fresh"). The crowd was just fully engaged with Jonathan and holding tight to his every lyrical dabbling and spontaneous styling.




Specific highlights of the show for me (other than, of course, the deeply evocative lyrics and the intensity of his delivery) were his polylingual extensions in Let Her Go and Vampire Girls; the intensity while singing without a microphone in Springtime in New York; storytelling in The Lovers Are Here and They're Full of Sweat; and the joyous rendition of I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar (which, as the last song in the main set, continued on and on (3 or 4 restarts) as the crowd continued its adorative clapping). "Do you want to hear it? You have no choice" was his twice-used lead-in when transitioning from English into romance languages. Conveniently, I am near-fluent in French and Spanish (as was much of the crowd, apparently, based on their reactions to specific lyrics), and joining Jonathan in using greater linguistic range to expand the expression of human experience added immensely to the show.

Es Como El Pan and When We Refuse to Suffer are my favorite songs from "Because Her Beauty...", and I loved the expanded lyrics in both (e.g. "that's when the homeowner's association wins and your purple and yellow paint job is the loser"). But the show was strong from first note to last (and quite the last, ending with the deeply personal "As my Mother Lay Lying").

I just wasn't prepared for how much I would enjoy this performance. As CHIMAERANDI at jojoblog noted, "I am a firm believer that all it takes to get one of your friends from lukewarm to love is to take them to one of Jonathan's shows." Yes, yes indeed.


Setlist (perhaps jumbled or missing a song or two near the end of the main set and beginning of the encore due to an unstoppable delete key on the iPhone; please correct in comments or email)

Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild
No One Was Like Vermeer
In Che Mondo Viviamo
You Can Have a Cell Phone That's OK But Not Me
Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eye Shadow
The Lovers Are Here And They're Full Of Sweat
Le Printemps Des Amoureux Est Venu
The World Is Showing Its Hand
Sinister house party (?)
Es Como El Pan
Here It Is (Leonard Cohen)
Let Her Go into the Darkness
Egyptian Reggae
El Joven Se Estremece
Everybody forgets me mr. sorrow (?)
When We Refuse To Suffer
Vampire Girl
Vampiresa Mujer
Springtime in New York
Stultified

The Lovers Are Here and They're Full of Sweat

I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar (last song of main set; restarted 3 or 4 times)

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He Gave Us The Wine To Taste It
Old World
A qué venimos si no a fracasar
Not So Much To Be Loved As To Love
As My Mother Lay Lying

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Another description of the show, with better photos - really, they can get better than mine? Impossible. (I'll leave it to the reader to determine whether that was spoken in English, French, or Spanish (misspelled).)


A good review of the Philadelphia show:
Philadelphia Inquirer