His Mystery Not of High Heels

Seeing Jonathan Richman in concert on Tuesday March 4 was pretty cool. He's a musician along the lines of Jon Brion, just someone who thinks very naturally and comfortably in song. I am apparently not the only person who thinks so. Among the many vocal fans at the Music Hall of Williamsburg (a venue I am still getting used to, as I saw many, many shows in the wonderfully DIY NorthSix and I can't help thinking that the Music Hall is a weird metal lattice facsimile of Bowery Ballroom) was a woman who screamed "Jonathan! Jonathan! I love you!" which all things considered isn't so weird at a show. But she was screaming it during applause, during banter, during the songs...it was a little tiring. She also sort of tried to sneak on stage...you know, anything to get next to the heartbreaker that is Jonathan Richman. This woman was annoying everyone around her (which included me) and probably most of the other patrons. She also was clearly annoying Jonathan, as about 5 or 6 songs in he casually walked over to the sound engineer while shaking some sleigh bells (it was a drum solo moment) and shortly after the woman was escorted out. As she passed me I noted that, well, she didn't look crazy.


Jonathan has been around seemingly forever and has recorded too many albums to keep track of, first with his band the Modern Lovers and later on his own. I think he alone can claim the title of "American Troubador" though one day someone like Ryan Adams may join him. He sang several songs in foreign languages, usually with some translation rolled in between lines, and when approached as a whole, his songs are about beauty, natural beauty, untainted beauty, and have a certain wonderful knowingly naive character.


Like Jon Brion mentioned above he is well-respected and has a fairly strong cult following (or in the case of "Jonathan I love you!" a little-bit-too-strong following) but he will never break into the ranks of big names (this despite his appearance in Something About Mary). It is fine by me if Jonathan Richman never plays anything larger than the Music Hall of Williamburg; it was like having a longtime friend come back from a trip abroad and recount stories of loves found and lost in the museums and cafes of...well, yes you get the idea. I would hate to cross over into the "Jonathan! I love you!" land.