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The last show of Richard Thompson’s Meltdown Festival 2010 was last night – Broken Bells, with Lone Wolf opening to a full (maybe not quite sold out) house. I’m so drained that, dare I admit it here, I have not even downloaded my pictures yet. Check back tomorrow, please.
Saturday was a busy day for Festival Curator Richard Thompson. The afternoon show was the much vaunted 1000 Years of Popular Music, complete with gorgeous costumes and also all but sold out. “That’s a bit rough,” said Mr. Thompson in his long black mandarin coat to Judith Owen when she emerged in her new Elizabethan finest, complete with white neck ruff. Music and dry wit bound with history and language brought learning hand in hand with the joy from beautifully played and performed entertainment. There were even a couple of changes in the program from the disc. So much great music – how can one stay pat?
Next up? Loud and Rich – Richard Thompson and Loudon Wainwright. Each played solo, and they joined one another on stage as well. Somehow stage chatter got to, “Oh, we wanted to that David Bowie Mick Ronson thing…” sending Loudon Wainwright skittering over to Richard Thompson’s side of the stage for some semi-evasive bobbing and weaving. As the audience howled, one spectator yelled, “Which one is Bowie and which one is Ronson?” Dignity prevailed, and now we’ll never know. Wouldn’t that have been a picture to get? Oh so glam, these guys.
Loudon Wainwright launched into some scaldingly self aware songs of loss and recrimination after telling the crowd that he had been watching the videos on Youtube from the tribute to Kate McGarrigle, his late ex-wife and mother of their children Martha and Rufus. “Even on Youtube, the emotions come though.” It was powerful stuff, and I heard chat at the interval how moved people were, and how pleasantly surprised by the power of what Loudon proclaimed, “…my two cents… my half a cent.”
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Things did not slow down Sunday with Kami Thompson and her band opening for a solo Elvis Costello. You may not have heard Ms. Thompson, daughter of Richard and Linda Thompson, but you should check out her delicious voice and wait patiently for a record.
Elvis not only looked great, and (of course) sounded great, but he exerted his prodigious talent as a performer to hold that big room in the palm of his hand. Getting seriously effect crafty with a big Gretsch on Watching the Detectives was a show stopper, as was the last encore with Mr. Thompson, “What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding,” which was, I believe, a fairly last minute decision. I had never seen Elvis before, so that was another special treat here in a week of life altering treatyness.
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