BLABTHERING RT

Janine and I went to see RT at Town Hall on Saturday night. Town Hall is just off Times Square. We ran into a lot of traffic as we were "dashing" to the gig in a cab. Once we got out of the cab, I realized that Occupy Wall Street had moved up to Occupy Times Square. I wish I had taken a photo of the police cars lining 42nd Street from 6th Avenue west to Times Square. And the rows and rows of police persons. And there was not a lot of activity where we were. Overkill or prepared-ness? You be the judge.


I've seen RT quite a few times, enough so that I can neither remember nor count them all, but let's say between 20 and 30 times since 1986 or '87 ... I was a little slow to the party. I think the first time was at the Cotati Cabaret in Cotati, California, which is near Petaluma. I know I was still working at Colossal Pictures as we had a coterie that went up. My brother David and my dear friend Terry came up from Santa Cruz, which added another two hours to their trip, about 4 hours each way. The Cotati Cabaret was a former church. And we did worship that night. I remember my exhilaration during the long drive back to down to Berkeley. I didn't even regret it at work the next day.


And so it went, me seeing Richard pretty much whenever I could, catching shows in San Juan Capistrano, Boston, Seattle, Poughkeepsie besides the bigger cities I've lived in. I thought the high point might have been two years ago at City Winery at an all-request show. Janine (again!) and I had great seats and I am still amazed and humbled by his barn-burning live rendition of Hard On Me (that's a studio version there). He was a bit loathe to play it as he said it was really a live band song, but then he just played the living daylights out of it.


Undoubtedly, I could put you all to sleep (no matter when you are reading this) blabthering on about RT. This show was different in that it was so good, it was ALL so good, that I felt as if I were overating coquilles st. jacques as fast as I could. (Heart attack to heaven.) It was like shovelling brilliance at us. No modulation, no blinders, no sunglasses. The full sun of a musical genius shone right on us. The hall is smallish, the acoustics were fantastic and I had a great great view of Richard so that I could watch him play, which is about the most mesmerizing thing in my life. 


Here's what Michael Giltz said about the RT Band Dream Attic tour which stopped at Town Hall the year before (I was at a yoga retreat, okay?)


"the music built and built and built with Thompson tearing into a guitar solo that virtually lifted the crowd off its feet. (I say virtually because we actually stayed seated so we wouldn't miss a note before leaping and roaring our pleasure.) Thompson was deep into it when he slowly worked his way back out again, finally looking up at his bandmates with a look of pleasure and setting them all off on another fierce passage.

The world is filled with virtuosos, guys who can play the guitar in a fast and flashy manner. What is it about Thompson's playing that elevates it so? First, of course, the solos are musically consistent -- they follow an internal logic (often a mathematical one that we instinctively respond to even if we couldn't parse it). But Thompson's solos are never just about runs or showing off. They're also emotional journeys."

Ummm ... emotional yes. I don't know how RT could keep playing. He did three encores after a blistering 90 minutes. I was dazed. And for the first time in my life, I actually wanted him to stop. I needed to absorb the wonder that I had beheld. I had been moved to tears, goosebumps, and gasps. 

"...he's constantly illuminating while giving very little away. Serious, with flashes of dry humour, he shies away from the cult of personality. Instead, he thinks deeply about music, its function in society, how and why it does what it does, and he certainly knows his stuff. The last time we spoke, he talked knowledgeably about gangsta rap and emo, and explained why he is often drawn to darker subject matters.

"In a song, often you're dealing with slightly troubling things below the spoken desires of the audience," he said. "As a songwriter, you look for those things. Sometimes it can be unsettling for the audience, especially the ones that deal with serious subjects, but because it's entertainment you can do it and the audience will go through that process – they almost like to be unsettled. It's part of the job."

Read the rest of that article here.

My ears are still full of RT. And I get to see him again tomorrow night!