Was at the brilliant Josh Ritter gig in Christchurch on Friday night. It’s so unusual to see a gig in a space not used to such things that the night was unique before kick off. It was jammed by the time we got there and we were ushered up close to the front… “Deadly!” I thought…

Little did I realise how close…

We were sitting in the centre of the very front row. Now remember friends this wasn’t the normal front row at a venue; our feet were on the monitors and Josh was about 4 feet away from us. That in itself elevated the evening to a very, very special experience. I’ve never sat on the stage for a gig before…

He had the crowd in the palm of his hand before he even came on the stage and the use of the space, light and the acoustics (he performed California in the encore entirely acoustically only using the room). Yes, a lot of the early part of the evening was slow-ish but then so is the new album (and that’s a glorious thing!) It ranks as one of the most enjoyable and extraordinary gigs I’ve been to in recent years…

Got a brilliant e-mail after too. You see the girl who won our “sit in the front row of the gig” competition when Josh was in mailed back to say that she couldn’t go and wanted us to find a good home for her tx. At almost at the same time I got a mail from Karen:

hey rick.
just googled josh ritter tickets for tonight…… looks like they’re all gone-imagine that! anyhow it says you guys are giving away a set? was that ages ago? im guessing it was…..bUt if it wasnt and you somehow magically still have a set i would lOve to get my hands on a pair. ive looked everywhere-i think im just gonna camp outside christ church tonight and see if i can hear anything or i could just wait tilil may. anyhow….. later, karen

It felt like serendipity. So. I mailed her back and got her on the guest list. Didn’t hear back from her but hoped she might get the mail in time… Today I got this:

Hey rick.
So I literally opened your email at 19:50 last night. Firstly I didn’t think Id get a reply and secondly I definitely had ruled out the chance of getting my hands on tickets! So you can imagine how I felt-I nearly died (not quite, but ya know what I mean…..) when I read it and cause I hadn’t replied I didn’t know what to do. anyhow I decided to jump in the car and fly in just in case I was still on the list. I cant begin to explain what a fantastic night I had-it was absolutely amazing. Im thinking you’ll probably know this for yourself because im guessing it was you sitting beside me, I just wasn’t sure if it was. I had a look at your pic on the web when I got home so im certain it was now! im sorry I didn’t speak to you and thank you there and then. I couldn’t believe where we were sitting either-it was just such a spectacular, magical night.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was totally unexpected and really very much appreciated! Take care, karen

It’s nice to be nice.

Josh will be back in May for 2 Vicar Streeet gigs and he’s be recording a full studio session for the show when he’s here…

R