Seems to be the year for anniversary shows for artists called Josh. After the excellent Josh Rouse ‘1972’ tour earlier this year tonight it’s the turn of Josh Ritter with the twentieth anniversary tour supporting arguably his high watermark ‘Hello Starling’.
Set in the beautiful modern setting of St John at Hackney Church with its wide girth and very high celling it is visually impressive if somewhat lacking in the character of say the Union Chapel. Sadly this doesn’t help the acoustics as there is nothing to dampen the sound to stop it swirling around the room for the large speaker stacks. So overall the sound is a bit boomy and somehow distant, lacking precision and disjointed from what you are seeing on the stage.
Thankfully Josh and the band deliver a perfect set of the album in its entirety plus selected tracks from across his extensive catalogue. The band are understated and excellently provide the base for Josh to shine front and centre. He is arguably the happiest musician in the world as I don’t think I saw his smile leave his face throughout the whole show.
I saw him play these songs first time around some 19 years ago at the Scala and so it was great to hear a couple of my personal favourites ‘California’ and ‘Bone of Song’ again after so long. However my enjoyment of the time was a little spoilt by the tone deaf woman next to me who sang every word to every song throughout the night which isn’t as much of an issue through the rockier songs but her whispered singing for the acoustic numbers was high annoying that I had to move. I’m all for a singalong but not so I can’t hear the artist on stage.
A good show from Josh and the band but not without issues not of their making. Certainly not a venue I will hurry back to.
Keep on rockin’ y’all