Richard Thompson
June 22, 2004 The Tralf- Buffalo
by Kevin J. Hosey
Well, I finally was able to see and hear Richard Thompson live, in a relatively intimate club with very good sound, and my only real question (which Val shares) is why did it take me so long?
Touring to support his “Old Kit Bag” CD, Thompson played the second-last show ever, apparently, in the old Tralfamadore Café in the Theater District in downtown Buffalo as the club has been taken over by a new, younger promoter from jazz saxophonist Bobby Militello, a club Thompson has frequently played. Clad in black, he led the band of multi-instrumentalist Pete Zorn, bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Dave Mattacks onstage to loud applause with a wide grin, murmured “good evening” before the band played “Mr. Stupid’s Back in Town,” a yet-to-be-released, fast, chimey, upbeat sounding song about how he expects to screw up again, highlighted by a hot, 10-second solo. This was followed by “Mingus Eyes” (thank you, p2 and Fear n Whiskey members), highlighted again by great guitar from Thompson and bass from Danny Thompson. “Jealous Words” from "Old Kit Bag” was next, and Thompson delivered a solo almost as stinging as the words bandied about between he and a woman in the song are. Before the band played its next song, Thompson displayed some impish humor: “Any fundamentalists or Taliban here? Oh, come on; don’t be shy. To help this next song, I’ve added a Raffi sing-along chorus.” A little bit later, after a good version of “The Wrong Heartbeat,” Thompson told a story about the time he brought Richard Thompson’s Big Band to The Tralf: “The club was sold out and there were reserved signs on tables, which were empty almost until show time. I was getting nervous and kept looking out through the curtains, and then the tables and chairs filled with senior citizens. Of course, we did play a nice version of ‘Pennsylvania 6-5000’ and played some `Price Is Right.’” Whether the town changes with this joke or it really happened in Buffalo, the crowd loved the story.

Thompson on acoustic guitar and Zorn on soprano saxophone played a lovely, heart wrenching “Al Bowlly’s in Heaven (I’m in Limbo),” showing that veterans of all wars get screwed by those in power. Zorn then joined the rest of the band offstage while Thompson played the Fairport Convention song “Crazy Man Michael” acoustically, and was then joined by Danny Thompson for the very fun “Alexander Graham Bell.” Zorn and Mattacks then came back on low drums and percussion for a mesmerizing, powerful “One Door Opens” that produced a standing ovation.
Going back to electric, Thompson led his band in a punchy, rollicking “I’ll Tag Along,” playing two great Telecaster solos (the rest of the electric songs were played on a Stratocaster copy), and then topped this with some amazing solos during an almost 15-minute version of “It’s So Hard on Me.” He then performed a rousing “Out on the Rolling Sea,” and then pulled out the Richard and Linda Thompson gem “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight” and a finely bluesy “I Misunderstood.” When Thompson brought out the hard-rocking “Valerie,” one of Val’s friends, Monica Celeste, made sure she got her attention and understood the nasty side of the song.
The regular set ended with an extended version of ‘Gethsemane,” my favorite song from “Old Kit Bag,” and an enlarged, charging run-through of “Tear-Stained Letter,” which featured a crowd sing-along, squealing saxophone from Zorn (who amazingly went from soloing to chorus singing twice without missing a breath or a word) and Thompson’s racing guitar.
The first encore began with Thompson and his acoustic guitar playing his classic “1952 Vincent Black Lightening,” as fantastic as anyone who waited this long to hear Thompson live could imagine. I could not hear one word of conversation anywhere in the club during this song, which produced another standing ovation (there was a lot of seating plus a good amount of standing room-only area). I teared up a bit when he and the band followed this with “Wall of Death” (a song I dedicated to my father Edward during my college radio station alumni weekend shortly after his death in April) and quickly cheered up when he ended this with a strong “Crawl Back” that was broken up for a few minutes by a better than expected version of Desmond Dekker’s “The Israelites.” After a bit more convincing, they returned for two more songs, “A Man in Need” and “Words Unspoken, Sight Unseen.”
Opening the show was Dayna Kurtz, who came onstage with just her guitar; while no doubt many of us expected some kind of basic folksinger (spoiled as some of us are by Ani DiFranco) or sea shantress, Kurtz sang bluesy torch songs over acoustic slide guitar, including “Somebody Leave a Light On.” She then told a story of touring and Jeff Buckley and of opening for a one-hit wonder from the 1970s who was a real bastard, but despite several audience requests, she would not name the singer.