In a world of creepy election posters, there is no respite for the soul quite like a balmy evening at Dublin Castle with the beguiling Mister Ritter. A somewhat tepid atmosphere greeted guests Mark Geary and Bell X1, whose ‘Long and Winding Road’ managed to tease out a few smiles, after Paul Noonan shamed us all into enthusiasm by thanking us for making them feel special.
Ritter made for interesting live viewing; one would think that his is a difficult sound to translate to a bigger, less intimate audience, but affable Josh charmed our socks (and shoes, incidentally) off in no time. His well-written, lyrically ornate songs held up very nicely, as they would against any of Leonard Cohen’s or John Martyn’s, and gentler, softer moments were at no time drowned out by the substantial crowd. Ritter’s demeanour is friendly, energetic and well, very cute, so he has no difficulty holding his audience’s attention. His vocals complement his writing so gratifyingly, we are soon lulled into a happy daze.
Sticking to lesser-known songs, Ritter avoided some of the better crowd-pleasers from his Hello Starling album. An interesting move, it showed his songwriting can speak for itself, though when the Idaho native did launch into such treasures as ‘Bright Smile’, ‘Man Burning’ and ‘Baby That’s Not All’, the restrained crowd responded with an enthusiasm that showed there was a potentially better gig there that wasn’t exploited. Still, you could do a lot worse than to spend an hour in a field with a neuroscientist’s son, and to prove it, Ritter and Geary finished the gig with the tastiest ever ‘When Will I Be Loved’ by the Everly Brothers. That, and a cool beer, you can’t go wrong.