General admission show at the Pabst. The balconies were closed, but there was a good sized crowd on the main floor. We sat just behind the railing about halfway back, just to the outside of the right aisle.

An older couple sat next to us. The woman was quite talkative, and told us the bands she'd seen, back in the Day. The Doors, Janis Joplin, etc. The woman next to us was quite frustrated that nobody would stand. She wanted to dance. She asked if it was always like this. I said yes, and that this crowd was old. She didn't think much of this, as she was on the older side of the crowd. She got on my nerves later in the show, as she would not let it rest. The couple in front of us were friendly too, and talked about some of the bands they'd seen back in their day. A song started that was clearly a favorite of hers. She was bouncing in her seat, and it wasn't that lively a song, if I recall. Two women decided to leave the theater, then, and she told them they were "missing the best song!" I can't remember what song it was, but it was off his latest, Electric. "Saving the Good Stuff for You," maybe? They played six songs from that album.

I have a great appreciation for Thompson, though my familiarity comes late, so I'm not intimately familiar with his music. If you'd given me the setlist right after the show, I probably could have recognized half the songs. I'm writing this a few weeks later, and I only recall a handful of tunes.

I enjoyed the full band, that being the Richard Thompson Trio. Thompson on both electric and acoustic guitar, Taras Prodaniuk on bass and Michael Jerome on drums. Though having seen his acoustic solo shows, I must say those are great too. He can really fill out a song on his own. He's one of the great guitarists.

Setlist:

Stuck on the Treadmill
Sally B
Salford Sunday
For Shame of Doing Wrong
My Enemy
Can't Win
Saving the Good Stuff for You
Al Bowlly's in Heaven
Fork in the Road
Good Things Happen to Bad People
Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?
I'll Never Give It Up
Wall of Death

Encore
If Love Whispers Your Name
Dry My Tears and Move On
Tear Stained Letter

Encore
1952 Vincent Black Lightning
Shoot Out the Lights
This Wheel's on Fire
Daddy Rolling Stone

Cyn and I saw Richard Thompson at Vogel Hall in the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. I had never been in this theater before. 475 seats. 17 rows on the floor, and a few in the balcony. Row C (not far off center) made for a nice close view. I was disappointed to see that the show wasn't sold out. Probably less than 400 people in attendance.

It was a solo acoustic show, with no opening act. Just Richard, his guitar and the beret of randomness. He played a good cross-section of his work, from 1974's Hokey Pokey on up to current, plus a cover, and one Fairport Convention song. After the third song of the night, he announced he would draw an album from the Beret of Randomness, which was lying on a stool nearby. This album was Hokey Pokey, so he played that song and a couple more from it.

Being a small venue, it allowed for a bit of audience interaction. Most of this was shouting requests, which Thompson good-naturedly accepted or rejected. At one point, just as he was clamping down his capo, someone asked for "I Misunderstood". He quickly glanced up and moved his capo down one fret. At the end of the show, as he left the stage, the audients were on their feet. When he returned, and everyone sat back down, one guy in the front center didn't. Thompson seemed to be leaning over to see around the guy, or posing while looking right at him. The guy realized what he was doing, and sheepishly sat back down. The audients got a good laugh, and Thompson asked him what song he wanted to hear. I didn't hear what he suggested, but Thompson called him a wise guy. On the way home, we were talking about what we would have said if we had been asked. He had already played my favorites and I'm not that familiar with his work anyway, so I probably would have suggested he consult the Beret of Randomness. We decided it would have been fun to ask for something from his 1000 Years of Popular Music album, like "Trafalgar Square" or "Oops, I Did It Again". He did, however, play "Dog Eat Dog in Denmark", a Frank Loesser song. It's a retelling of Hamlet in 1940's jive-speak. "Ophelia, overcome with such grief and sorrow/She went and flipped her lid, she popped her cork, she jumped the track/And her intelligent mind developed a permanent crack/Things went black."

Cyn was happy to hear several of her favorites, including "Johnny's Far Away", "Dimming of the Day" and "1952 Vincent Black Lightning". The latter is a favorite of many. It's one of my most favorite songs of all. Four straightforward verses of love, devotion and death. I see angels on aerials in leather and chrome/swooping down from heaven to carry me home. The tune is gorgeous, and the guitar... amazing. And speaking of blistering guitar, he closed with "Cooksferry Queen."


A mic, two monitors, two stools, water, powder and the Beret of Randomness.


Bad cellphone picture of Vogel Hall. The place is rather dated and worn. All red velvet and lights. Too bad it doesn't see enough business to warrant an update.
Cyn and I went to see Richard Thompson at The Pabst. We had great seats - eighth row, center.

Thompson is a great guitarist - one of the best - so I was disappointed that his guitar was a little too quiet in the mix. Or rather that everything else was too loud. Maybe it's because we were front and center, but this was one of the loudest shows I've been to in a long while. At one point, the saxophone was doing that reedy screech, and my ear actually hurt a little after that.

The band was Richard Thompson (vocals, electric and acoustic guitars), Pete Zorn (acoustic guitar, flute, alto sax, baritone sax, sopranino sax, mandolin, vocals), Michael Jerome (drums, vocals), Taras Prodaniuk (electric bass guitar, vocals) and Joel Zifkin (electric violin, mandolin, vocals). The drummer and bassist occasionally did background vocals. Zorn often sang harmonies. Zorn was my favorite of the night. I liked his baritone sax a lot, and loved his alto sax solos. I also liked Jerome on the drums. He has a great, loose style.

Thompson's latest album was recorded live on his last tour. The first half of the show were all songs from this album. The audience really seemed to love it. The second set and encore were his earlier "hits". I actually only recognized a couple of songs (Cyn's the big fan), but they were all good. Most of the show was straight-ahead rock or folky/rootsy stuff. One song was a maybe-forties-style jazzy/bluesy number. It had a great sax solo, that sounded like a muted trumpet. A couple of songs featured extended jams and solos from different bandmembers, but especially Thompson.
1000 Years of Popular Music.

With Debra Dobkin on percussion and vocals, and Judith Owen on keyboards and vocals (Owen has a great voice), Richard played songs dating from the 1100's to 2006. They started the show by coming down the center aisle toward the stage, Debra drumming and Richard turning the crank on his hurdy gurdy.

He played a song written during the 1800's or early 1900's in England for the striking coal miners.

He played "Java Jive" written back in 1940:
I love coffee, I love tea
I love the java jive and it loves me
Coffee and tea and the jivin' and me
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup!

He went on to do a song from each decade through 2006, including "Oops I Did It Again".

He also sang one for an encore that was written by King Richard 1 of England while he was spending two years in prison.

Many were doubtless surprised that he didn't put one of his own songs in, but with a theme as grand as 1000 Years of Popular Music, that would be a bit presumptuous.

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