Josh Ritter never did anything for me. A patchy debut and an over-rated follow up only served to increase my amazement as to how he had become so successful in this country. Tonight though, I may have begun to come around.
Whelan’s, a venue Ritter has long since outgrown, is packed. This is essentially a secret gig, a warm up for Sunday’s appearance at the Oxegen festival, and he's preaching to the converted, the overwhelming majority of those being female. Throughout, he has the girls in the palm of his hand. Every grimace or bad joke from the stage inspires a serious of delighted giggles.
Renditions of ‘Snow Is Gone’, ‘Roll On’, ‘Bright Smile’ and ‘The Bad Actress’ get the ball rolling early on, all sung with gusto by the adoring audience. In particular ‘Me and Jiggs’ sounds great, though it’s later, with his new material, that Ritter begins to push all the right buttons.
Showing a degree of trepidation, Ritter announces that “playing new songs in front of an Irish audience is like bringing someone back to meet your parents.” Picking up an electric guitar to a lone cry of ‘Judas’, he dedicates the first of his new songs to those who lost their lives, earlier that day, in the London terrorist attacks. What follows is a moving five minute song (perhaps called ‘Full House’) that packs a punch to the gut. Though having nothing to do with the attacks, it could have been written in the immediate aftermath. Ritter delivers it with an anger and guile reminiscent of fellow compatriot, Bright Eyes, and the lyrics of “streets of amputees” sound particularly startling and apt. Though circumstance will have played a part in its power tonight, there is no disputing its quality.
An encore of ‘Come And Find Me’ closes the show. Again there’s a hysterical response which leaves Ritter with a smile, no doubt all the wider for the reaction to his fine, and at times startling, new material.