Robert's Review of Richard Thompson at Carolina Theater, 10/29/99

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Richard Thompson and his band moved into the Carolina Theater in Durham to support his new album "Mock Tudor" and took it over. Richard Thompson is a thirty year cult phenomena that amazing enough gets better every year. Thompson's albums have often weaker than his live shows but not anymore. The last few have been solid musically with no gimmicks, no weak songs, and strong production. For this show he delivered a lot of new songs from Mock Tudor which of course is a rarity from an artist with a 30 year history. Even more rare is that the song writing and the music is not losing its strength or relying on uninspired re-threads.

The Carolina Theater is a classic theater that was remodeled back in the late 80's (it took a few years) and is a great place for a Richard Thompson concert. Reminiscent of an old music hall with a balcony, reasonable seats and. Very clear sound. Unfortunately with the type of music he was playing there was no room to move your feet. The audience was mixed along ages, social strata, sexes, and dress with students, middle age hipsters, yuppies, young professionals, old Richard Thompson fans and novices. The crowd was enthusiastic (with more than a couple of fanatics) and Richard Thompson joked throughout the show.

Thompson is known as a cynical songwriter with an dedicated but cult level audience. On stage he plays with both stereotypes by joking at himself and the audience. He is funny enough that he wouldn't be out of place in a british music hall in another time. He was taken aback by the wild response to one song and said that they can't do that in England and that lead into a story about old Duane Eddy albums with credits listed for people doing rebel yells. Richard said that Mock Tudor is a collection of songs about London and life in its suburbs. That said he added that one song sand had no cultural reference for the southern audience, but joked that he was inspired by "Free Bird".

The band started the show just like Mock Tudor, rocking from the start with "Cooksferry Queen" and playing new songs for about half the show. Among the other new songs were "Sibella" a highly rhythmic song with a percussive tom-tom syncopated beginning that opens up into a love song, the rockers "Bathseba Smiles" and "Crawl Back," the moving "Uninhabited Man," and the acoustic rave up "Sights and Sounds of London Town".

"Hard on Me" was in the middle of the set but would have the closer for any other act - an extended version that allowed Richard Thompson to take his electric guitar to places where mortal guitar players fear to tread. Often Richard Thompson is written up as guitar hero but subdued or restrained - but there is no restraint in these solos. The only difference is that he plays notes rather than just dynamics. This was as good as it gets.

Old classics included the jazzy "Al Bowlly's In Heaven," and the rockers "I want to break someone's heart tonight," "I want to see the Bright Lights Tonight," and "Tear Stained Letter." During one of the three encores Richard came out solo to sing his classic "1952 Vincent Black Lightning." I thought a man across the isle from me was going to weep. Teddy joined him on a touching duet of a "Heart needs a Home" that was nicely set off by Teddy lead vocal on one verse. The show ended with "Wall of Death" and "Razor Dance."

Richard Thompson leads the band with tasty guitar stylings on both electric & acoustic guitars & with a strong if not always pretty lead vocal. But the gruff voice works well with many of his songs and when it doesn't there has always been a Sandy, Linda, or Bonnie to smooth it out. Teddy Thompson (relation) backed the band on electric & acoustic guitar, dulcimer, and vocals and took lead on a couple of verses including heart needs a home and showed a clear sensitive voice that was a nice contrast to his fathers. Danny Thompson (no relation) stayed in background playing only a couple of great solos on double bass. The new drummer, Michael Jerome, was amazing playing with brushes but bringing extra dynamics to the songs. He received the most applause except for Zorn - surprisingly Dave Matticks wasn't missed. Pete Zorn played everything else including acoustic guitar, mandolin, baritone flute, baritone sax, tenor sax, alto sac, mini- cornet , and vocals. An amazing multi-instrumentalist who can solo on most without sounding false. He's a key part of the success of the live shows.

Richard Thompson manages to write songs of considerable depth and maturity without losing the essence of a pop song. His guitar playing is lyrical with sharp rhythms and fills that perk up songs or touch the heart with extreme sensitivity but then he will tear the strings off in a blistering rocker. The local Triangle paper Spectator Tim C. Davis put it appropriately in the headline of a concert preview article - If Eric Clapton's God What does that make Richard Thompson?

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