Josh Ritter in Amsterdam!

Ok, so here is my impression of yesterday's wonderful Josh Ritter concert! For my own convenience I will just copy/past the story I wrote for my last.fm page. Also, I stole a picture from the web of Josh, because I still haven't got a camera...

Yesterday I saw the most wonderful concert in Paradiso, Amsterdam. I was there with my good friend StarCollector (and BertSpaan turned out to be there as well!) to see Josh Ritter and it was above all expectations! First there were two opening acts: Declan O'Rourke (who I had never heard of, but played some good songs and turned out to be a very sympathatic performer) and Nicolai Dunger (this guy was really weird - screaming and yelling, improvising, and inviting somebody from the public on stage to echo his words - but he was also extremely funny).
These artists got the audience(well, most of it) in a good mood for the man everybody came for: Josh Ritter who turned out to have come especially for the audience! He kept on saying that he was so happy to be there (so was I!) and was all smiles even when some stupid people in the back kept on talking through his songs. He made some nice remarks about Gorillas in the mist and Jane Goodall to one of those guys, which was really funny. However, there were at least two moments when everybody seemed to hold their breath and kept completely quiet: during the beautiful Wings (when all the lights went out, creating a magical atmosphere) and Lawrence, KS, the last song he played, completely acoustic without microphones and whatever, which was very impressive. But those were not the only highlights. I was especially thrilled to hear him perform my favorite songs Me & Jiggs, Golden Age Of Radio (dedicated to Johnny Cash and Harrisburg. Also amazing were some of the best songs of his latest record: Thin Blue Flame, Girl In The War and Lillian, Egypt. Not to mention older songs like Snow Is Gone and You Don't Make It Easy Babe (dedicated to the man who talked too much ;-) and so much more! I had the most wonderful time and I will definitely knock on his door if I ever come to Idaho! ;-) For now, I will just listen to his records a lot!

For those who have never heard of this guy: he is somewhere between Bob Dylan and (a more happy version of) Nick Drake and one day - if he keeps making records as good as Hello Starling and The Animal Years - he will have the same status as these artists!