so, let's start with jonathan richman! i saw him march 22 in bordentown. there was a meet and greet at randy now's man cave (you should know by now that i love it there and randy is the man). he played a short set of songs which i missed, sadly, even though i tried to get there early this time (leaving work on time always seems to present a problem). oh well. but he was still hanging out and luckily i remembered to grab my vinyl copy of because her beauty is raw and wild before i left in the morning, so he signed it for me. i was trying to come up with something cool to say to him, which never happens when i want it to, so i ended up saying that my favorite song off that particular album is "when we refuse to suffer." and he was like "oh, can i tell you something? that one's my favorite too." HOW CUTE IS HE? i can't stand it. anyway...so he was super nice and everything and then later i asked for a picture with him and LOOK HOW CUTE HE IS:
GAHHHH SO CUTE!!!
anyway. then i bought a bunch of records and hung out with my friend gary. he's cool. there were a few hours between the meet and greet and the actual show, which is at the open arts theatre, just a short drive from the man cave. so we hung out for a bit and then headed over to the theatre. so, when i saw the dickies there, there were some chairs and the front was cleared out. when i saw robyn hitchcock, there were chairs all the way up to the stage. this time, the entire room was cleared of chairs. just a few around the edges of the room. i found out later that jonathan had moved all the chairs himself, didn't want help, just wanted to move the chairs out so we could all stand and watch the show. CUUUUUUTE. ok. so the show starts, and now forgive me because this was a while ago, but i don't quite remember what songs he played. it was good, though. i know he did stuff like "trash on the beach," "lesbian bar," "because her beauty is raw and wild," "no one was like vermeer," "old world," etc. you get the idea. and it's him with his acoustic guitar (no strap; he just holds it) and tommy larkins on drums. tommy is so much fun to watch. i mean, he kinda looks like he's falling asleep as he sits there sometimes but he throws in some really cool shit. i love watching someone play such low fi drums at a show, if that makes sense. so of course after the show i wanted to go say hi to him...i will say that it took me a little while to work up the guts to say something to him. if you've ever seen him play, he looks kind of grumpy and doesn't smile at all. but when i went up and said hello and i enjoyed the show, and could i get a picture, he smiled at me and said of course. this one is really cute too:
see, he even looks mildly disgruntled here, but i assure you he was perfectly friendly and wonderful. we ended up talking for a while. he was impressed i'm a drummer (they always are) and we just talked about crap, like how i work at a record store, which he thinks is really cool. and he said how it was kind of a weird vibe that night. he prefers to look out and see everyone holding a drink out in the crowd. so i said "well, you're in luck tomorrow night then. everyone drinks at the brighton bar." he was curious about it, since i'd obviously been there before, so i told him how awesome that place is, and he wanted to know if i was coming to that show too. well, i wasn't planning on it... but then he offered to put me on the list. he said no obligation, just that i would be on the list if i did decide to go. how cool!
needless to say, guess where i ended up the next night? brighton bar. of course. my new friend (i didn't write about him yet, but i met this dude at the robyn hitchcock show at the sellersville...we sat next to each other by chance and he started talking to me and he's actually cool. he was also at the glen/sylvain shows that i wrote about, but this happened first because my memory went out of order) came with me. he actually kind of talked me into going, but since he'd never seen jonathan before i decided to take him with me. tommy came through and remembered to put me on the list, awww, so we got in for free. saw tommy again and he was happy to see me there. the show was the same but totally different at the same time. like, the songs were basically the same, but the vibe was totally different (just how tommy likes it). everyone was drinking and singing along and jonathan, as a result, whipped out way more dance moves which are my favorite. seriously, you have to go see him and check out the way he dances. it's the best.
i'm really glad i went to see him again. after the show, tommy saw me and said probably the best thing anyone in a band has ever said to me: "keep drumming, and keep selling records. those are two really good things."
TRUTH. thanks tommy ♥
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