Luxbndr's Blog

Review
Richard Thompson
Robin Lane
Westbrook Performing Arts Center
8/31/11

Since moving to Rangeley and working in Farmington every day, I’ve come to appreciate mid-week concerts. As most concerts are in the metro areas of Bangor, Portland, Waterville and such I’m usually “almost half-way there” when I leave work in Farmington. Were I in Rangeley, with an hour to drive just to get to Farmington, convincing myself to drive a couple hours more to get to the concert becomes difficult. But when my nephew Tom called to let me know that Richard Thompson was playing in Westbrook on a Wednesday night, it was pretty much a no-brainer. Pop out of work early, head to nephew’s in Saco for a meal, drive to the concert and then crash in Saco for the overnight.
Tom and I had discussed the particulars the night before the concert, and I happened to ask whether there was an opening act, since the concert was set to begin at 7. Tom checked the ticket details and replied that “someone named Robin Lane” was scheduled to open. Could it be THE Robin Lane of “Robin Lane and the Chartbusters”? A Boston-based band from the late 70’s- early 80’s, the group was defined by Robin’s strutting blues voice and legendary live shows. Robin hailed from the Topanga Canyon days of Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young and others, in fact had sung back-up on a couple of Neil’s early LP’s, as well as living with him for awhile in a cabin up in the Topanga woods. Robin later moved east and created The Chartbusters from parts of the busted-up Modern Lovers, the band behind Jonathan Richman and a few strays from other Boston bands….. Hmmmmm…… in preparation for the idea that it just might be, I went to my LP collection and pulled out the EP “5 Live -Robin Lane and the Chartbusters”…..and just for the fun of it, I pulled out an old Richard Thompson LP, “Hand of Kindness”. Ya never know.
Hit Tom’s a little after 4:30, had a bracing “comfort food” meal of mashed potatoes, salad and barbecue pork…yum yum…. Then, LP’s tucked under my arm, we were off to the newly-constructed WPAC. This is a spanking new venue tucked into the Westbrook Middle School campus. Think Room C-131 of the UMF campus. Not a whole lot of seats (maybe 1,000- 2,000?) . Now think of C-131 as an actual concert venue (nice seats and sound system, carpeted floors, acoustically resonant walls) and not a lab/lecture hall…..good sightlines throughout, and built for the function of live performance, this venue could become a unique addition to music performance in Maine.
When we drove into the Middle School parking lot, we realized we weren’t the only people who knew this was a GA concert. The first section was already filled, and actually that turned out as a plus. We were within the first two rows of the second section, allowing us to have a sightline above the shoulders and heads of the folks in the first section. The only better spots would have been in the first half-dozen rows of Section 1. Maybe next time…..
It was minutes before the concert was scheduled to begin and I had to observe…. “where IS everybody”. I had remarked to Tom earlier that I had been intrigued by the LACK of promotion about the concert. I don’t recall seeing any public notice of it in any form, anywhere. Tom had caught notice of it by going to the Yarmouth Clam Festival and noticing a paper poster stapled to a telephone pole. For whatever reason, this meant that the concert hall was “maybe 2/3” sold, although I would say closer to “1/2” . Very Strange Indeed.
A tad after 7 and Robin Lane comes out for her brief opening set. In earlier remarks by the Heptunes promoter, it is noted that this is the only concert of Richard Thompson’s tour in which an opening act is included. And yes, it IS Robin Lane of Chartbuster’s fame, singer on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Round and Round and other Neil songs, “present at the creation of The Police” and other notable moments in musical history (or whatever)…she seats herself at the lone seat, faces the lone mic, and guitar in hand…presents. No longer the singer in a blues/rock bar band, Robin still has a strong voice with full range and tone. I have to figure that, being a Topanga Canyon habitue’ back in “the day”, her self-confessional lyrics of her new works are not that far from what was happening back then. Introspection was THE DEAL, “emo” before it became a term. In any case, she’s still writes in that “open-diary” mode, about relationships and feelings, weaknesses and personal dilemma. Her demeanor at the chair indicates that she may prefer more intimate settings than a concert hall…. her songs reflect a pretty raw emotional core…in any case, her set consists of seven songs
You’re Not My Kind
Long Dark Tunnel (people get ready)
Over You
When Things Go Wrong
Flying On Broken Wings
Troubled Man
Longest Night

The highlights are (for me)
“When Things Go Wrong”…which I have as a raucous bar song on the Live EP but here is delivered solo in a much more evocative tone. A woman frustrated by the fact that it appears to her that she loves her man better than he loves himself. It’s a great song in either format but as a solo, the love within the frustration seems to be underlined with a clarity missing in the band version (which just seems angry about it). Talking with Robin later, she expressed how hard it was for her to transfer it from that rock-hard anger to something sadder.
“Flying On Broken Wings”….the imagery and language can seem a bit strained at times…but as Robin explained, the lyrics were drawn from workshops she does with women prisoners, helping them respond to the issues in their lives through writing and poetry. Between her website (which Tom forwarded to me) and her presentation at the concert, one discovers that she is spending much of her energy on a non-profit she has set up to help people with PTSD and other issues. So she conducts writing and recording workshops with youth and inmates and other marginal populations. She obviously has deep emotions about this and, as with any deeply felt drive, sometimes it can feel a bit strong/preachy to the listener who may not “get it” as far as what she’s talking about. But I know her population well and to me, as juvenile and inarticulate as it may sometimes sound, the words ring true to where the heart is.
Other songs like “Long Dark Tunnel/People Get Ready” and “Longest Night” were very well done and delivered in such a clear, strong voice that one wonders how it was maintained all these years. She’s still “got it”. And she’s still got a few issues regarding relationships…..many songs were a tad bitter, shall we say (“Over You”, and “Troubled Man”, specifically)…. But in that regard she was a perfect bookend to Richard Thompson. Between the two, I don’t believe there were three songs about functional relationships the whole night. Not a happy time for people who think LOVE is the answer to everything.
Robin’s set was brief but powerful and then on to break. During the break I went to the lobby with my EP and (yes!) caught Robin as she came out to sign CD’s. We briefly talked about her charity work, she signed the EP (“My God, I’m so happy you came!”) and then off to wait for Richard….
An observational aside…yes we are here mixed with the weird demographic dissonance I experienced at the Dylan concert. Who ARE these people and why are they here? They’re so freakin’ OLD!!!!!!!
Ahem…….Promptly at 8 (I mean PROMPTLY)…and Richard enters the auditorium. At center stage is one stool, one microphone, and one guitar. This is the tone for the rest of the evening. The stool is not for Richard, it is for a glass of water (?) and a sheaf of papers that is the setlist for the evening.

She Twists The Knife Again
The Ghost of You Walks
Turning Of The Tide
Northern Girls
When Good Things Happen to Bad People
Johnny Far Away
Working for the Pharoah
52 Black Vincent
Who Knows Where The Time Goes
Bright Lights
Bees Wing
Crawl Back Under My Stone
Wall of Death
Stumble On
I Misunderstood
Down Where the Drunkards Roam
Enc:
I Feel So Good
You and I
2nd Enc
Bathsheba
Two Left Feet
Final Enc
Dimming of the Day

To eager applause, Thompson steps to the mic and starts the concert off with a striking “She Twists The Knife Again”…..this happens to be the song that Tom frequently quotes as one of his favorites and there it is, up front and out there as number one….bang….one check on the “perfect setlist”.
This bodes well for the evening.
And really, it is followed through by the rest of the 90 + minute unbroken set. The next three songs continue the wronged and haunted lover theme, Ghost of You Walks, Turning of the Tide (and the bitterness therein)…and the brutal “Northern Girls” with the returning phrase “northern winds will cut you/ northern girls will gut you/ like a fish upon the slab”….ouch!
I’ll not do a song-by-song analysis for no other reason than that in many ways it comes to the “you had to be there” moment. Some things go beyond my capacity to express. Even trying to write about “the high points” leads me to want to write at length about each song. I shall not. So…..the stunners…..

It was great to hear “We’re All Working for the Pharoah”, a song Richard had written about the international monetary system, long long long before the banking crisis. We’re all working on “fixed incomes”
Early in the concert, Thompson refers to his youthful times with the Fairport Convention and to his “amazement” the group is recognized by the audience. He then states that we can buy the “complete 19 cd collection for, like 2,000 dollars or something”…then, in a brief, touching memory, speaks of Nick Drake and how after years of anonymity he has gotten his due as a songwriter…”from a bunch of VW ads”…..”eventually the cream does rise to the top”…..Richard then introduces the next song….”I cannot sing this song as well as Sandy, but if I sing this well enough to get you to listen to her, then I’ve done the job”… turns then into Sandy Denny’s “Who Knows Where The Time Goes” and it’s great….a famous song done with a different turn, not with the tentative voice of Sandy or of Judy Collins, but the longing voice of Richard Thompson.
Later he gets to my favorite song “Bees Wing”….is there such a thing as a female version of a roue’ ? A raconteur? I don’t know if there’s a dictionary term, but she does exist. Bees Wing describes her. A woman as “into the moment” as any directionless male. Unwilling to commit beyond the Now, no promises of anything but the Moment we are in. Richard, as the raconteur who wants to get “serious”, aced by the woman who played him at his own “let’s just live for today” game. He paints a ragged end for her…a woman who troughed her life into the ditch because “of the chains that she refused”…..but as she constantly reminded him “you would not want me any other way”….if she had accepted the chains, he would have walked away…..a no win situation. Really great song, not often played but when it happens, it’s like Dylan’s Fourth Time Around…. Just Like a Woman….Tangled Up In Blue….One Of Us Must Know…..
And we keep going into incredibly well-performed versions of exceptional songs….the sing-along of “Crawl Back”, the celebratory defiance of “Wall of Death”…the almost Country and Western lyricism of “I Misunderstood”, another sing along of “Down Where the Drunkards Roam”…..off the stage and the lights dim…Thompson returns for an encore with an ecstatic “I Feel So Good”, descending it into “You and I”, another dip into the melancholy of love. The second encore driven by a cheeky/hilarious “Two Left Feet”, complete with contemporary lyrics such as “Rupert Murdoch was indiscreet/ hacked the phones with two left feet”
Richard Thompson leaves the stage again….called back for a final song, what better than “The Dimming of the Day”….crystallizing life into what really matters as the days become more essential. A gracious bow and away….
I had been clued ahead of time by an audience member that the soundman at the helm of the mixing board was also Thompson’s manager….”if you want that LP signed, run it by him and you’ll have no problem…Richard can sometimes be aloof”….as I left the concert, there was Simon at the board. “Simon, will Richard sign…..”
“He’ll be at the CD table in a few minutes, he’ll be MORE than happy to sign that!” (after all, it was “Hand of Kindness”….which contained the original “Two Left Feet”)
and Richard Thompson most graciously signed the LP.

The Other Review

A Richard Thompson concert can be a difficult review. His technical expertise at the fretboard of the guitar is stunning to the point where words become useless. Metaphors melt, aphorisms atrophy, pictures are required to minimize the thousands of words. The concert in Westbrook was by definition an “acoustic” concert. Richard Thompson used one guitar, the same guitar, all night. He dusted it once with what appeared to be talcum powder. When performing, he frequently played both the rhythm and lead structures of a song, simultaneously. Historically, other acoustic guitarists that can pull this off would be John Fahey, Leo Kottke, Michael Hedges, Lenny Breau, and a handful of others. You may note that most of these guitarists are not really great lyricists (possible exception, Leo Kottke, although lyrical content is pretty minimal)….and none of them are vocalists in the traditional sense. Richard Thompson writes lyrics with content, delivers them with solid vocals inflected with real emotion, and under all that is a line of ecstatic guitar play. Tom noted that Richard was always adjusting the tuning of his guitar (even mid-play) and Tom was pretty sure that most of the tunings were not “standard tuning”….I noted that Richard Thompson was greatly influenced by his Sufi faith in the 70’s and frequently adjusted his guitar tunings to middle-eastern instruments (like the Oud and the Lyre) and atypical song structures….even the inner flow of the song may not follow the typical “pop song” formula of lyric/refrain/chorus etc…. add to that his deep interest in Celtic and early English musicianship and well…..Richard is his own territory.
This resulted in an “acoustic” set that never really sounded that way. Thompson’s ease and familiarity with this one guitar allowed him to create a sonic fullness with nothing but the basic six strings, holding harmonics and sustain on the instrument without knobs or wah wah pedals. Just knowledge and control. I look back at the Jeff Tweedy concert and no bad words about Jeff….but he was surrounded by about six or eight guitars. I think he used two. I guess they were individually tuned or otherwise special. Thompson needed one.
When I first saw Richard Thompson in concert it was at the Maine Festival, maybe 86, 87… at that time held at Bowdoin College. I had sat (excruciated and tortured….a redundant but effective phrase) through a set by Manhattan Transfer, had been thoroughly entertained by the verbal/musical antics of Jonathan Richman. He and his Modern Lovers had split (remember way back at the beginning of this…and Robin Lane?) ….there was a delay between artists and then Richard Thompson eventually emerges….explaining that he was sorry for the delay. His guitar didn’t make the flight and so he would be borrowing the guitar of Jonathan Richman for the evening….which he proceeded to bend into every shape imaginable to create that Richard Thompson “band in a box” … guitar as accordion. I wonder if Jonathan ever played that guitar again…..