A Pin Drop's Echo

No matter how many times I go to the Birchmere, at every visit I am amazed by the quality of sound in that room. The venue mainly treads in singer-songwriter acoustic-types and the room is perfectly suited for it. When plugged in, the vocals are clear and true and sound as if someone is singing in your ear. And the acoustic guitars are warm and bright yet don't have those tinny, abrasive high-ends that are the hallmark of every MTV Unplugged episode. But here's what's really special. When a performer is truly "unplugged" (unamplified) and sitting on the front of the stage strumming and singing into the air, as Josh Ritter did last night peforming the Everly Brothers' "I've Been Cheated" with an acoustic guitar and his opening act singing harmony, you can still hear every tone, every warble, and every word. That room got deathly silent and as they repeated the closing lyric, ever softer each time, it was still clear as crystal. Amazing.

To say that I simply enjoyed the show last night would be an understatement; there's something about the lone singer-songwriter. I've gone back-and-forth on my apprectiation of the One Man Act over time. On the one hand, I love the sound and the fury of a rock 'n roll show. I play the electric guitar and adore it for its flexibility and variability; the way its tones can be variegated by complex electronics or simple touch. The creamy sound of an overdriven vacuum tube or the howling whine of the Larsen effect that can actually be "pushed" to resolve into a scale tone, these are some of the most exciting things about music for me. Yes it is Freudian, yes it is phallic, and yes (at times) it is all about the size of my soundwave. But isn't that what rock 'n roll is about: the id unleashed.

However there is something to be said for stripping the entire facade away until it is just wood, steel, and the human voice -- and of course the song has to be there as well. So when it is, it gives me pause to think that maybe there is something to be said for the notion of one man, one guitar, one song. That is probably why generations less cynical than ours believed that Springsteen could change their lives or Dylan could change the world. It's silly and naive, but I can empathize. Good show last night.