Got a tip? Send it our way
Share your music news — big or small — with the Austin360.com team by sending us an e-mail.
Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > March > 03 > Entry
Review: Richard Thompson at Cactus Cafe
Rolling Stone ranked Richard Thompson No. 19 on its 2003 list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” — which is selling him seriously short, as anyone who managed to squeeze into the Cactus Cafe Sunday night would probably tell you.
Sunday’s two and a half hour set was the first of two sold-out solo acoustic shows at the Cactus, and while Thompson unleashed fewer mind-warpingly pyrotechnical solos than on electric guitar with his band at the Texas Union Ballroom last year, his playing was no less thrilling.
Thompson’s dazzling technique is really secondary to his instinct for color and narration. The crowd burst into applause at the ethereal opening arpeggios of “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” as carefree and seductive as the flame-haired heroine of the tale, while the throbbing bassline rushed inexorably forward, like the doom awaiting the song’s swaggering protagonist.
On the rockabilly-fired “Valerie,” Thompson threw off a flurry of bent notes that underscored the narrator’s comical exasperation. “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me,” from Thompson’s last studio album, 2007’s “Sweet Warrior,” is about a confused young soldier in Iraq, and the guitar effortlessly combined the fluid and the percussive as keening, Middle Eastern-tinged lines soared with nervous, rock ‘n’ roll energy.
Thompson’s songs tend toward the dark. He opened with the cold menace of “I Feel So Good” and did not neglect the harrowing “Shoot Out the Lights,” defiant “Wall of Death,” embittered “God Loves a Drunk” or forlorn “Walking on a Wire.” His voice has a reassuring warmth, however, and there were humorous tunes, such as “Hots for the Smarts,” his music-hall ode to brainy women, and “Smiffy’s Glass Eye,” at the request of an audience member.
Thompson’s wry wit lightened the mood between songs. He introduced the hard-hitting unreleased tune “Time’s Gonna Break You” with a soliloquy about Lehman Brothers, Bernie Madoff and certain politicians and entertainment business figures, lamenting the tardiness of karma with the proclamation “They’re going to fry in hell” and the lamentation ” … but we won’t get to watch!”
Reaching all the way back to his days in pioneering folk-rock group Fairport Convention, Thompson covered Sandy Denny’s haunting “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” and his second encore featured his take on the Who’s “Substitute” that brought out the creepiness and venom of the lyrics. Even when he’s performing someone else’s song, Thompson is a pure storyteller.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Reviews
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.