Richard Shindell at the World Cafe

breadandroses and I saw Richard Shindell last night. It becomes increasingly clear to us that our experiences of surly!Richard could be put down to the fact that perhaps he just didn't like playing the Birchmere. Which is fair, since the sound system is (or was, when I was last there) teh suck, and much of the seating likewise, and ditto the menu. (DEAR ALEXANDRIA VA, YOU ARE NOT NEW ORLEANS, KTHANXBAI.)

Though the Birchmere never gave me food poisoning, so there were advantages.

ANYWAY. Last night Richard Shindell was chill!conversational!Richard, even when he was frustrated by the difficulty of tuning his bazouki. ("Can you just tune it there in the sound booth? You've got knobs and stuff!" *Plays a phrase of introduction. Stops.* "Could you just turn it down on the monitor so I can't hear it?") He played a lovely solo set, as follows:
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Antje Duvekot opened, and was very pleasant, though my favorite part of her set was when Richard came out to sing harmony on "Vertigo" and they bantered about their clothes. Apparently there'd been some discussion back in the dressing rooms about what they should wear, and she had strongly recommended the long-sleeved shirt he came out in, and he had suggested she wear both the dresses she was considering. "You were unequivocal," he said to her. "I was equivocating." And then they did the song and he sang harmony, moving effortlessly into a heartbreaking falsetto on one line of the refrain.