Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte, NC, March 3, 2000

From the RT list again.


Ghosts in Charlotte

It was an otherworldly night at the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte, North Carolina last night. For one thing, Richard Thompson seemed a bit perturbed by a section of the audience that was mostly walled off from the rest of us, sitting off stage right and looking through an opening in the wall as if behind one-way glass and I.D.-ing the perpetrator. He enjoyed poking fun at them all night. At one point, he suggested that they were in another dimension and warned them that when they went out to the parking lot, they might run into themselves. (Or something like that. My "otherworldly" experience was enhanced by a fever with a splash of Shiner Bock.)

There was also the ghost of Teddy, represented by, at first, a dulcimer on a stool on stage right, with a microphone and everything. It turned out the mic was for Pete Zorn, who managed to alternate between eerie dulcimer and enraptured rattling (sorry--I don't know the name of a chicken shake that isn't egg-shaped) on "Uninhabited Man." After the song, the setup was removed, and there was a gap on the stage. We missed Teddy, especially as a vocalist on "She Twists The Knife Again" and "Bathsheba Smiles."

The set list evoked distant spirits as well. From "Uninhabited Man" to "The Ghost of You Walks" and "Ghosts in the Wind"--and, less obviously, songs like "I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight" that evoked earlier periods of Richard's career.

It was by no means a somber evening, of course. I've never seen RT, in a band configuration, chat so much with the audience. He really seemed to be enjoying himself. After the show, when he finally emerged from the bus to greet the few of us who hadn't given up on him, he kept telling people what a great audience they were. The place was pretty full, and it seemed relatively sedate to me, but maybe that's because I'm not used to having a longneck bottle of beer and a padded theater seat at the same time.

Set list--yes, in a rare instance of trainspotterness, I took notes--

Man In Need
Bathsheba Smiles
Two Faced Love
Hard On Me
Ghosts in the Wind
She Twists the Knife Again
Uninhabited Man
Rock Island Line (one stanza, with band, once RT was inspired by the rumble of a passing train)
Al Bowlly's In Heaven
The Ghost of You Walks
Hamlet
Sights and Sounds of London Town
Walking the Long Miles Home
Cooksferry Queen
I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight
I Feel So Good
Tear Stained Letter

So of course then there was an encore. People were whistling and clapping rhythmically. I expected more rebel yells, but maybe I'm just a Yankee snob.

1952 Vincent Black Lightning (he's still reinventing the guitar part; wouldn't you, just so as not to be bored?)
Crawl Back Under My Stone
Wall of Death

Yeah, yeah, they're leaving, right, let's clap some more.....

Dimming of the Day
Put It There Pal
Razor Dance

Holy shit. "Put It There Pal" was one of the finest RT performances I've ever witnessed. Never has rancor been so stately and beautiful and annihilating. I kept expecting the devil to bang on his ceiling pipes and ask Richard to keep it down up there.

Along with "Cooksferry Queen" and "Ghosts in the Wind," "Put It There Pal" was a highlight of the show, well worth the trip some of us made from Washington, D.C.

But that's not all! We also got a wonderful in-store performance at the Record Exchange. (It's a marvelous store, with friendly people and good prices and selection--new and used stuff, including LPs--and a built-in stage; I staggered around there, with my flu, for what seemed like half the afternoon, listening to the RT music the staff was spinning.) RT started out by asking us how many of us were going to the concert that night. When nearly everyone responded in the affirmative, he told us that he would promote his new album "by not playing any of the songs from it here and just take requests." We got the following (as I recall--I didn't take notes):

Beeswing
Valerie
Down Where the Drunkards Roll
Mr. Rebound

He signed stuff--but I missed that part, as I was up the street haranguing the people at Kinko's to please finish the printout of my book so I could give it to Richard...and then having to have them redo part of it because the pages were out of order...blahblahblah. Richard has a copy now...if you're reading this, Simon, thanks!

Music sometimes can take away all sense of time and space and leave you suspended in beauty. Yesterday, in Charlotte, I had many such moments. And it wasn't just the fever.

Pam Winters