don’t let me into this year with an empty heart

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Happy New Year! Let’s celebrate with a poorly focused shot of fireworks over a foggy Northampton, Mass., taken yesterday evening.

I was in town for the very last concert of the year, a New Year’s Eve show by Josh Ritter at the Calvin Theatre. This was the first time I’d ever gone to a NYE concert, somehow, and my fourth time seeing Josh Ritter this year, somehow.

(All four — Terminal 5 in New York City on my birthday in February, Daniel Street in Milford in June, and a bookstore in San Francisco in July — were very different, with varying lineups, song arrangements, sounds, special holiday surprises, appearances by stars from The Office, etc., etc.)

The opening band, Love Canon, proved to be an extended source of confusion. “We’re a bluegrass band that plays exclusively 80s music,” they told the audience. My friend and I started commenting on their terribly awkward sound and then noticed that the bassist looked strikingly familiar.

The woman next to us told us that Love Canon was actually Josh Ritter and his band in disguise. We were in the balcony, and maybe the band members are good actors, so we accepted that as true and got a kick out of their performance.

They did Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” a-ha’s “Take On Me,” and all kinds of other 80s classics, in addition to a classical piece from 1785. (“When we said we were an 80s band, we didn’t just mean 1980s.”)

Later, during the main performance, Love Canon reappeared on stage. Wait. That’s Josh Ritter and Love Canon Guy Who Was Supposedly Him next to each other. So, it turns out the only member they had in common was bassist Zack Hickman. I think. The whole thing is still a little mysterious.

Anyway. Real Josh Ritter and his real band:

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They were all decked out in sleek black suits and had flowers wrapped around the microphones for the special occasion, with their standard state flags draped over instruments.

Our balcony seats were a cost-saving measure, sure, but they also turned out to offer a nifty bird’s-eye view of the entire band working as a unit. It turns out they’re all having a blast up there, though not quite as outwardly as their leader, who was once famously compared in a New York Times concert review to “an exuberant puppy that had just been freed from its leash.”

I should have taken notes on the setlist. Some highlights:

• “Lantern” (of name-of-blog fame). Obviously. For the first time (at shows I’ve seen), one of the song’s trademark instrumental parts was played “authentically” on an electronic drum pad instead of roughly duplicated on the guitar. It sounded awesome. A few people in the front row tried the glowstick thing, which will never be as special as that time in Tarrytown when it was pulled off the first time, by everyone, as a complete surprise.
• “Me & Jiggs.” Still a semi-rare treat to hear live. “On a Saturday night/in a town like this” resonated.
• “Change Of Time.” The live presentation, which has an intro that doesn’t appear on the recorded version, has been refined and enhanced each time I’ve seen it live. It’s a wonderful song in itself, but the repeated background vocals add an extra punch.
• The artwork projected on the screen in back of the stage. Simple black screenprinting-style drawings that changed with each song and captured its key symbol. Loved how “Lantern” started with a match and then changed to a lantern when the chorus kicked in.
• The new songs. “Galahad” is already starting to sound familiar and can always be counted on to bring the lolz among audience members. Not sure about the titles of the others, but it’ll be exciting to hear them in final form when (if?) they make it onto an album.
• “Good Man.” It’s old-ish and obscure-ish, but for some reason, everyone in the audience suddenly knew it, and everyone was really excited about it. Maybe it was on a TV show? Whatever it was, the crowd’s energy helped fuel a rocking performance.
• “In The Dark.” Would have been its usual quietly powerful self if not for some drunk audience members whose noisiness ruined the moment. Oh well. New Year’s Eve. (Also randomly thought about how the chorus would have been a good theme song for power-outage-afflicted Connecticut folk this last year.)

Which brings us to…

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The New Year’s Eve-y stuff. The mood all night was festive. Late in the set, they had a faux midnight countdown, complete with confetti and horns. A member of Love Canon ambled on stage dressed as a diapered 2012 baby.

“Empty Hearts,” a beautiful, heartbreaking New Year’s Eve-ish song with little bit of personal significance, finally made an appearance in the encore. I shocked myself by making it all the way through without tearing up… and then, as the song ended, the stage went dark for a second. Oh, there’s Josh Ritter up there playing a surprise rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” on the violin. Asdfjksdklfj. So much for getting through without tears.*

*This is only the second time ever I’ve been that moved at a concert. Just for the record. I can be safely taken out in public most of the time.