Lots of people know singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman from his key role in There’s Something About Mary, but he earned his fan-boy reverence in the mid ‘70s as leader of the proto-punk band the Modern Lovers. Since then, Richman has scaled back, turning into a surprisingly minimal, acoustic songwriter accompanied onstage by only drummer Tommy Larkins.
Richman immediately capitalized on the audience’s good spirit at the Beachland Ballroom last night with “Celestial” and “Let Her Go Into the Darkness,” which found the 59-year-old alternating between emphatically finger-picking his guitar, twirling it, and shaking his hips. As the almost-too-brief hour-long set progressed, he would continue to place down his guitar, grab sleigh bells, and display some dance moves when the mood struck.
This article appears in Mar 2-8, 2011.
It was a great show. Definitely too short. Does anyone remember who wrote the poem Jonathan recited?