I stayed at the Grove Stage all day and there was some good music
I think it was the best solo acoustic show we've seen yet!!! Just how does he keep getting better and better? How is one person so incredibly talented? my oh my!! Some people we met at the festival joined us for RT's set.....at one point the woman leaned over to me with this incredulous look on her faced and asked "how does he do that?" hmmmmm.....I have no idea!! Our friend who was with us has some cd's but has never seen him live was totally blown away.....he was amazing...
Another great highlight of the day was the Asylum Street Spankers!!! A definite must see. Willie Porter was really good also.
If someone could be kind enough to post a set list....either to me or to the list I would really appreciate it. I would like to compare it to mine.....see if I remembered all of it.
Thanks very much,
Robyn
Rigel7@prodigy.net
this morning, after spending all of yesterday outdoors in the wilds of New Jersey. It's a crescent of red atop my left shoulder, rather like a Boy Scout patch. The rest of me is unscathed.
Is this the badge of a Thompson fan? I guess it might be. Seeing and hearing him was the high point of my day yesterday, though that's hardly a new thing for me. This was a day of many high points, though, musical and otherwise. I enjoyed Willy Porter's set and thought he'd have a lot of crossover appeal for RT fans, with his continually surprising guitar playing and his darkly humorous lyrics. I also liked Vanida Gail and Jonatha Brooke and wish I'd seen more of Lucy Kaplansky and my faves, Moxy Fruvous. (Fruhead mania was much in evidence yesterday, and the merchandisers accommodated it well. I wanted one of those cute T-shirts that read "I Love Canadian Boys," but I think the largest size they had would have served me as a legwarmer at best.)
Also, I finally got to see Mary Chapin Carpenter (I'm probably the last person in her region not to have been to one of her shows before this) and got an idea of what the fuss is all about. She put on a great show with a stellar band: John Jennings, Duke Levine, and Jon Carroll.
Ah, but RichardRichardRichard....he had a lot of fans there, too. How many of those lawnmower shirts did I see? (All of them were on chests; none were for sale.) I was so close to the stage by the time he came on that I'm not sure how well he was received, but I think there was a huge audience, all the way up the hill, clamoring for him. And afterwards, when he came out to greet some people who had waited for him, it was fairly intense. A group shriek actually went up from the crowd. At least one woman insisted on hugging him. A guy at the back called out, mock-reverent (I hope!): "If I could just touch you, I'd be healed!" Little kids were running around going "It's Richard Thompson! It's Richard Thompson!" I had to pinch myself to make sure that I was awake and the drugs weren't acting up again. (Gee, maybe that mark on my arm isn't sunburn.)
Did I mention the music? Duh.
I felt that he started out strong and maybe got a bit tired or distracted towards the end, though he seemed totally into "Mingus Eyes" (was it the last song?). I don't mean to be unfairly critical; I go to too many of these things to have a normal impression of them. Then again, maybe I was the one who got tired or distracted, round about "Uninhabited Man." When he launched into the Syd Barrett/Brian Wilson thing again, I wondered if it was coming off as meanspirited. It didn't work for me--whatever the reasons for these guys' deterioration--it just seemed petty. The song that followed--one of my favorites, especially in a solo setting--seemed discordant. Was his tuning off? (Next-to-lowest-toned string--either the 2nd or the 5th.) Was my proximity to the speakers finally taking its toll? Or was I hearing, or fearing, something off-key in the attitude of someone I admire? At any rate, he lost me for a couple of songs there. "Wall of Death," another favorite, was a bit perfunctory.
Again, I'm speaking as someone who probably goes to too damn many RT shows (praise God that I can do this!). Overall, it was a vigorous and satisfying performance, especially early on. It was heavy on Mock Tudor material, which works really well in a live setting. (When Richard wrote the songs for this album, did he have their performance potential in mind, and is that why the recent band tour has been so powerful?)
I didn't keep a set list, but I know that someone did. Hello??
High point: maybe "I Feel So Good" because he clearly did. Also "My Daddy Is a Mummy."
Great seeing some fellow listmembers there, too!
I forgot to mention this earlier.
At Appel Farm, RT's set was preceded by a set by Jonatha Brooke, formerly of The Story. During her performance, someone from the staff interrupted to announce a child who was at the information booth, hysterical about wanting to find his parents. This really bummed Jonatha out, and she kept asking "Where's Clayton? Did Clayton's parents find him yet?" Another misplaced-kid announcement soon followed, and before her set was out, the same staffer (was this a WXPN person?) came onstage with a small boy. "This little boy is Christopher Thompson, and I'm reliably informed he's not Richard Thompson's son. Anyway, if Christopher's parents are out there, please come and get him! And in the future, all of you, don't have children unless you can keep track of them." Chris's dad then retrieved him from the stage to much applause.
We were told that Richard's set would not be interrupted by any lost-child announcements. And it wasn't, but children were a part of the show. After a little girl down front ran off during an early number, he joked about the kids being "bored silly" at his show. Later, he introduced "My Daddy Is a Mummy" as a song he'd written for his son's elementary school class to teach them about history. Afterwards, he joked about "getting into Raffi territory." Just then, a brat screamed from somewhere off to the right, and Richard made some quip like "I'm pandering to YOU, sir!"
to Pam's posting (and many many thanks, Pam, for squeezing Chris and me into your group right at the front)--
The crowd was indeed huge, at more than a third again as large as it had been for the earlier performers (many people came over from the other stage for Richard's set).
He walked onstage, stamped his left foot on the ground a few times, then said, "Do you ever get something stuck on your shoe?" and proceeded to scrape something -- mud & grass probably -- off the shoe onto the monitor.
He didn't lose me for a minute, although I agree that "Wall of Death" seemed a little perfunctory. I was particularly thrilled with "The Ghost of You Walks," since that's one of my favorite songs. He did joke about being "very very confused," having flown in from Brussels the night before and getting ready to fly to London today. Someone called out "What time is it?" and he mumbled, "I don't know."
Big thrill for me: as we were getting up to give a second standing ovation after the encore, I was cramped and hurting from sitting squeezed into the crowd for so long and my middle-aged bones were protesting. I must have looked it, because he looked straight at me and laughed. I made a face at him, and he laughed even harder, making eye contact for a good long time. Sigh!
Counting the days until Ocean City....
Joyce Lionarons
jlionarons@ursinus.edu
Yes, I got sunburned real bad, too! I've got the reddest face you've ever seen, so I've been taking it easy since getting back from Appel Farm.
And I see everybody else has been taking it easy, too...no AF set list's been posted yet?!? OK, here it is:
RT, solo, Appel Farm, New Jersey, 6/3/00
Sights and Sounds of London Town
Bathsheba Smiles
Waltzing's for Dreamers
I Feel So Good
The Ghost of You Walks
My Daddy is a Mummy
1952 Vincent Black Lightning
Dry My Tears and Move On
Walking the Long Miles Home
Crawl Back Under My Stone
Uninhabited Man
Wall of Death
Turning of the Tide
Encore: Minghis Eyes
Linda
and then I'll shut up...he did some intriguing variations on the lyrics, including changing "Stanislavsky tears" to "Pagliacci tears" and fleshing out the line after "then she got wise" with something like "with the Brando mumble...and the Mingus eyes." I found the changes very effective.
I suspect that RT counts "Mingus Eyes" among his favorites of his own songs, not the least because he can perform it easily in solo, band, and duo (with Danny) settings.
I saw that a few people were looking for a set list from the 6/3/00 Appel Farms show. I'm not on the RT list, so I don't know if someone has already provided this info. If not, feel free to cut and past the songs on your site.
Sights and Sounds of London Town
Bathsheba Smiles
Waltzings for Dreamers
I Feel So Good
The Ghost of You Walks
My Daddy Is a Mummy - I hadn't heard this before and am guessing at the
title. It was hilarious.
1952 Vincent Black Lightning
Dry My Tears and Move On
Walking the Long Miles Home
Crawl Back (Under My Stone)
Uninhabited Man
Wall of Death
Turning of the Tide
Mingus Eyes - encore
Sean Prosser