Surrender To Jonathan Richman

I respect Vic Chesnutt's songwriting, but have never been a fan and didn't get a lot out of seeing him open for Wilco during their Summerteeth tour a decade ago, but Thursday night's performance gave me more admiration for the partially paralyzed singer/songwriter.

Chesnutt wheeled up to the microphone with his acoustic guitar and began "Florida," an acerbic song about the state described as "the redneck riviera," "no more pathetic place in America" and "no more perfect place to retire from life." Who wants to go to Disney World?

Chesnutt's seven-song, 40-minute opening set also included new songs recorded in Montreal and with headliner Jonathan Richman in San Francisco that will appear on two upcoming albums. Audience members in the underutilized Queen Street West venue were telling others to be quiet so they could hear Chesnutt's words, which led the 44-year-old Athens, Ga. resident to tell folks that "It's not a show until someone gets punched, so you have my blessing."

Sound problems plagued Chesnutt's set, and they continued when Richman and drummer Tommy Larkins took the stage in the packed auditorium, which features excellent sightlines from both the floor and the seated balcony.

This caused the performance to begin with the congenial Richman doing without amplification on his voice or acoustic guitar. That was fine with me, since I was in the front row, but those farther back couldn't have been happy as they strained to hear "No One Was Like Vermeer" and "Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild" from last year's album that bears the name of that second song.

After a few delays, things were fixed by the third song, "Celestial," which featured lyrics in English and Spanish. The youthful-looking 58-year-old also included French ("Let Her Go Into The Darkness") and Italian verses and songs elsewhere in the set, but his rhythmic guitar-playing and Larkins' drumming meant you could still move to them even if you didn't know what they were about.

There was no language barrier with the evergreen instrumental (and 1977 U.K. #5 hit) "Egyptian Reggae," which had fans clapping along and included some cowbell action. Richman also occasionally traded his guitar for bells through the set, and he often dropped all the instruments to shake and shimmy in a somewhat awkward but endearing fashion.

Richman wasn't always the acoustic troubadour he is today. Richman was a pioneer of the new wave rock movement as leader of The Modern Lovers — which also featured future Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison and future Cars drummer David Robinson. Their self-titled, critically hailed and ultimately influential album came out in 1976 (four years after the songs were recorded).

Richman reached back to that debut for "Pablo Picasso" ("He could walk down the street and girls could not resist his stare, so Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole"), another song that pays tribute to one of Richman's favourite artists.

The impromptu choreographed "I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar" drew a big reaction and, as a proudly cell phone-free Luddite, "You Can Have A Cell Phone That's OK But Not Me" was especially pleasing to me.

The 65-minute set ended with last year's "When We Refuse To Suffer," which presented another case of the artist throwing ad-libs into his material, which always adds a second level of entertainment to a Richman show.

Richman is possessed by an eternal childlike innocence and joy, so it was an odd choice to end the two-song encore with the downer cut "As My Mother Lay Lying" from last year's LP.

I realize the man has an album to flog, but I dearly missed the earlier repertoire that would leave me smiling and humming to myself for days when I used to see Richman as often as I could in the '80s and '90s.

Those of you who may only know Richman as the musical narrator in There's Something About Mary should go back and hear "Government Center," "Give Paris One More Chance," "My Jeans," "Corner Store" and "Circle I." They're surefire ways to reverse even the foulest of moods and get you in gear for the title of Richman's 1985 album, Rockin' & Romance.