"I was dancing in a lesbian bar" jonathan richman at the mohawk austin tx 6-22-2012
we've been lucky to be able to see jonathan richman regularly. he usually comes in the fall/winter time. this year was June, and it was hot... and an outdoor show.... and a LOT of people made it out to the mohawk to see him.
the pic above was nearly an hour before he took the stage. no breeze and it got PACKED. we were all sweated up.
he started at 10 PM sharp. gave us a great "no one was like vermeer", then he stopped to ask us a question....
"can you hear me ok? can you hear me up there? (somebody responded with "turn it up, LOUDER! jonathan paused and grimaced, we could all hear the soundbleed from a band on another stage at the mohawk) I don't do loud. that would be like fighting, and I don't fight. You paid for this show and you deserve to hear it. I tell you what, I'm going to ask you all to be patient and wait for this other band to stop, so you can hear this."
and he walked off the stage. we all stood there a bit stunned, hot and sweaty packed in like sardines. we could hear the metal band from the other stage playing on. after about ten minutes J. Richman came back to give us an update. "I told the club they had to move the other band to the indoor stage, or you all deserve your money back". we started to get a bit restless and a few minutes later a guy from the mohawk jumped up and got a bit angry at the audience (really!) "don't you heckle MY artist!, just relax and go have a drink". I thought that was a bit much, we weren't heckling mr richman at all. we were annoyed that the club had booked another loud band at the same time. we had already bought drinks from his bar and waited for two and a half hours in the heat.
mr richman sat at the back-side of the stage, looking a bit like a groundhog peeking out from his hole, checking to see if the metal band had left yet and the coast was clear.
eventually, we were rewarded for our patience. the other band was moved indoors and jonathan came back and did a dance while tommy larkins created the beat. (see the first youtube video below to enjoy his "thank you for waiting, over there" dance)
he paid us all back by playing a string of crowd pleasing hits including: I was dancing in a lesbian bar, Vampire Girl, and My Affected Accent. we all know the lyrics and he would regularly back away from the mic, knowing we'd all complete the song for him. love the audience participation portion of the show.
classic jonthan richman crazy eyes look at the audience.