The good thing about a double bill where both acts are solid, is that you look forward to an entire evening of music. On paper, that should have been the case on this night. Unfortunately, opener The Low Anthem exhibited little resemblance to the band that got a good review in this blog a few years back at the Green River Festival. TLA has a couple of excellent recordings (Oh My God Charlie Darwin, and The Smart Flesh) with a knack for quiet>>>loud songs. On this evening, with a new female violinist and harmonica player, TLA seemed to plunge straight into cacaphonous squall omitting the song structure entirely. While this plan of attack may work in the jazz world, it seemed silly in the alt. americana landscape. The song about Ozzie Smith was humorous, but their set left not much else.
Josh Ritter has had a couple of releases since I last saw him. Armed with a tight band, tight songs and a permasmile, Ritter burned through much of his catalog. Band consisted of bass, drums, keys, lead guitar, with Josh on guitar and vocals. Large crowd for a Sunday night. Josh has also been through a marriage breakup recently which seems to have energized his stage presence. Josh seemed genuinely excited to play Toads, a fabled venue he read about in Rolling Stone as a child in Idaho.
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