June 30, 2008
Jonathan Richman
NY2LON Live Reviewby Lauren, a product of california's public schools
The day I saw Jonathan Richman was one of the hottest days thus far of 2008's summer season. And I waited in this heat (by myself at first) for a few hours, because the show (lucky me!!) was at a tiny bar and was likely to be sold out. Now this bar, The Make Out Room, is a very warm location already, and combined with the weather and the sell out crowd, it was boiling. But I took it like a champ for one of my favorite humans of all time, Jonathan Richman.
When Jonathan stepped onto the stage and started setting up his minimalist equipment, so many bursts of excitement occurred, most notably, a woman in front of me said, "He's so humble, he sets up his own stuff!" Not like it's hard, when you only have one acoustic guitar and a few various hand held percussion instruments. He disappeared again, and I took in the fact that I was almost surely the youngest person in the hot, sweaty crowd. Perhaps that is why there was so little whining about the heat, no under 21 people, save me, and I was complaining inwardly. To kill time I started devouring some melted Hershey Kisses that were still in my bag from the Islands show.
Finally, Tommy Larkin, longtime friend and drummer, and Jonathan Richman hopped out to play some songs. They started with "El Mundo", which had a rocking dance jingle stick solo. Great way to start off the set. Next followed "My Baby Love Love Loves Me", which is a song that always makes me happy to think that Jonathan Richman has a great life somewhere. Most of his songs do that, actually, especially ones about love. He just seems to get it; in a new song "A que venimos sino a caer" he mentions that what is the point of living if everything is great all the time, there has to be some rough patches. Perhaps he's old and wise (or dignified and old, as he wished to be). He also doesn't have a cellphone, which was made painfully clear with his Cellphone song. "If I'm eating breakfast, I'm eating breakfast. If I'm at the beach, I'm at the beach, you can't reach me there." I thought, what if you have an emergency and there isn't any payphone! And he seemed to answer me, singing "I'd just walk to find a phone." The song also made my addiction to my phone painfully clear.
JR played one of my favorite songs, "When We Refuse to Suffer", right before intermission. We were all suffering from the heat (disgusting, really) by this time, and he made me feel like that was okay. "When we refuse to suffer, that's when the air freshener wins, and the real air loses." He announced that he could only pantomime hellos to fans, since the doctor told him he should not be exerting his voice anymore than he had to. This did not stop me from giving him my band's demo, and feeling so excited when he smiled at me with his big, round eyes as if to say, "thank you, Lauren." Too bad he doesn't have anyway of reaching us, since if he doesn't have a cellphone, there's no way he'll have a myspace or email. The break was short, and Richman and Larkin came back to do "No One Was Like Vermeer", a song about how weird the painter Vermeer was both in style, and in what his paintings evoke. "Vermeer was eerie, Vermeer was strange, He had his own color range, As if born in a more modern age... may be oh a hundred or so years ago."
Some things I realize about Jonathan Richman:
- He knows what his fans like. That's why he did "I was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar" with such gusto, that he compelled the overheated crowd to dance along.
- His fan base are all marriage material. Many of them attractive, 20-30 somethings. Many of them willing to suffer for him (in the awful heat). I could fall in love at a JR show.
- He's as real as it gets. Who else would admit to wanting to be more masculine as a high schooler and tell –nay sing! - stories about that awkward age. Who else could sing about how their parent died as Jonathan did on "As My Mother Lay Lying"?
-He can lead successful singalongs to songs nobody has heard before. That's a real talent.
Posted by ny2lon at June 30, 2008 10:50 AM
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