Thus my trip south of the border to catch Josh Ritter's own tour in support of The Animal Years.
Happenstance
Interesting things almost always happen by chance. There should be a rule in life that one should seek to maximize chance occurrences in their life if they desire to live an interesting and wondrous existence. For me, it was being accosted by an astonishingly small women with intense blue eyes and a sacred mission to share the warmth and goodness of Jeebus with all - however unwilling we may be.
Being accosted is not something new, everyone gets nabbed from time to time, on the phone or on the street by someone selling something: from phone plans, to religion to just plain craziness (yes, we are all stocked up here!). Religious types (wackos?) are no exception, Canada included, but what the United States adds is style that only dueling megaphones and fire and brimstone speeches can provide. I swear it was something out of one of those apocalypse movies where possessed humans call for the end of days.
My personal Jesus - short woman, blue eyes - was there to tell me that it wasn't pure happenstance that we had met that day near the Public Market, it was God's destiny. Now, everytime I meet these humans of the parasitic variety I mull over my options, perhaps as a hitman scans carefully over his weapons kit, looking for the tool that will maximize efficiency and minimize attention or collateral damage. You don't want to use a bazooka on a 4' 10" woman in a public place, that's just distasteful and definitely inartistic - and if assassination is anything, its an art.
So what are my options? The bazooka in this case would probably be responding to my savior as a nihilist/anarchist/satanist shooting uranium-tipped "God is Dead" rounds with maybe a mumbling "6-6-6" grenade for good measure. A bloody mess for certain and not the wisest choice since backing my evangelical envoy was a veritable army of the Lord God which would certainly move in for the kill had I attracted so much attention to myself.
So what else? I'm pressed for time so I reach in and grab... Buddhism. Not sure what the weaponized form of Buddhism is so I'll leave it up to your imagination (comment below if you think of something witty - otherwise keep it to yourself!). I thought perhaps this could function as the Walther PPK of James Bond fame. You know the little hand-gun with the long-silencer excellent for the quick ins and outs of a master spy. Little did I know that today's Salvation Army suits its members in the thick kevlar of ignorance and fanatical devotion that rendered my Walther as woefully inadequate as its size might otherwise indicate. Here is a paraphrase of our duel:
(Happenstance! A co-worker gave me a copy of "Is Jesus Christ God?" rather randomly just now. Perhaps all this is a sign. My knees are shaking)
A: Have you heard of the Ten Commandments, can you name one?
B: (Go with adultery you have a great story on that one...) Thou shall not kill (oh... lame and obvious).
A: Have you killed anyone?
B: Not today.
A: But having hate in your heart means you kill someone everyday! So you have sinned without evening knowing. Thankfully, Jesus suffered and died for your sins so that you may be forgiven.
B: Uh... I'm a Buddhist.
A: But the Ten Commandments say as well that you will have no other gods than the one God. Including Buddha...
B: **Stunned silence** (She had incapacitated my logical-reasoning net with a deft judo chop)
A: So you too have sinned. But Christians don't need to work toward salvation, Jesus has done that for us by dying on the cross.
B: So Christians are kinda lazy then, compared to us Buddhists (A slight recovery). Not to mention doesn't God help those who help themselves?
A: Well that's very nice but its not in the Bible.
B: Uh.... (Another swift attack. I definitely did not have the upper hand).
In the meantime my backup team, a bo-bo frenchman (and actual Buddhist) and a fiesty 5-footer had left me high and dry. I had to chalk this one up to other team as I accepted my fate and stood there letting time tick by to receive a lecture on what Jeebus did for me and why I should (and would) come back to the fold. An embarrassing defeat - what else can be said.
The Triple Door
The club where Josh Ritter was playing was absolutely cool in the coolest sense. It was all booth seated in a theatre-like room (angled down toward the stage). It was a bit too swank for me ($30 US for the cheapest bottle of wine - which we ordered and shared among 5 people to the chagrin of the waitress). I did, however, take advantage of the free water, which was served in wine-bottle style flasks and ordered an ulong (sp?) tea that smelled curiously like marijuana. Damn hippies.
Anyway, here are some shots of the show.
The set wasn't incredibly long and featured only a single encore. The show began and ended with the two popular tracks from The Animal Years - Girl in the War and Thin Blue Flame (mp3 links provided by Josh Ritter's website). Other standouts include the acoustic Idaho (from Animal Years) and Kathleen and Snow is Gone from Hello Starling! (my favourite album, the one which he was touring for in Canada). He also sung liberally from his earlier more Dylanesque folk albums including the self-titled debut release and Golden Age of Radio. My only complaint was that Starling! was definitely underrepresented in the set (mp3s from all his albums can be downloaded at http://www.joshritter.com/music.shtml
What really catapulted the show, however, happened after all the music and applause died down and the lighting finally restored. On filing out of the venue I looked toward the back and Josh Ritter himself had come out to chat with fans. This occurrence - even on the indie circuit where I spend most of my time and dollars - is a rarity. Thankfully I had brought my copies of his latest albums and rushed to get them signed as my ex-roommate quickly coughed up the dough at the merch table in order to get a piece of the action.
JR proved to be quite the amicable and charming gent - a little odd too for good measure. Here's a picture or us keeners.
As well as the signatures!
A great message here:
In the end, whatever impression I had of the concert when the curtain closed was abolished by the infinite coolness of the act of the artist coming out to chat with fans of his music. It meant a lot and so I only regret slightly my comment to Josh Ritter that "I hope you don't get famous".
Hopefully I'll see him next on his Canadian tour - which he'll headline!
No comments:
Post a Comment