Birchmere, Alexandria, VA, April 16, 2001

Source: RT list again.



I hereby apologize to Tom Jackson for being quick to reach the keyboard. I won't spoil everything about tonight's show. (No, I'll just spoil a little of it.)

I've always liked the word "quiver." Don't you like it as well? It's a container for arrows--what you would think of as a stable protector for kinetic objects--but it's also something kinetic in itself. I've been looking for the word "quiver" all evening to characterize two moments in tonight's show.

The first was at the end of "Crawl Back Under My Stone." After that abrupt final strum, Richard stepped back, two or three steps, and I swear I saw him shake, or tremble--or quiver--and then open his eyes as if he'd caught his consciousness all at once in his own arms.

The second instance was the final note of...oh, man, which song was it? Might've been "Persuasion." Or "King of Bohemia"? He was picking out notes softly, as he sometimes does to end a song, and this last note was part of the major chord--not an unexpected note--but there was something about the way he hit it that the sound--not the pitch, but the sound--wavered. Quivered. If it was an accident, it was a brilliant one.

I told Richard that this was one of the best shows I'd ever heard him do. He seemed genuinely baffled. I said, "Hey, it sounds different to you up there than it does to us down here."

It was a powerful show, a passionate show, but it was the quiver that made it special.

(Or should I laud the arrows, rather than the quiver? Every one true to its target.)

Sorry I'm lapsing into purpleness...must be the beer....

Pam