joseph arthur
saturday, october 12, 2002 • the JBL theater @ the EMP, seattle wa • review by janice • picture by anton corbjin


review: I'd never even heard of Joseph Arthur until my fabulous friend Allison told me she was going to see him in concert Saturday night. She sent me some MP3's of his, and WOW! I was really impressed with his mostly-acoustic tunes. And since it was my birthday weekend and I was feeling a little kooky, I was like, "Hey, why not?!" and decided to check out his show with Allison and Betsy before heading out to see the Tullys.

And holy macaroni, am I glad I went!!! Joseph Arthur is AMAZING, and I encourage anyone reading this: if he's in your town, you simply must see him!

Rusty Willoughby: Rusty opened up the show, playing nice little acoustic songs. I'd never heard of him before, and he was quite alright. I liked how quiet and unassuming he seemed. Very humble.

Joesph's Opening Band: So we were waiting (anxiously) for Joseph to take the stage and I noticed all these other instruments laying around. Pointing to the drums and keyboards, I asked Allison if Joseph stops and plays those too? That's when the woman sitting next to us leaned over to say that Joseph was touring with a band now, and we were actually the first city in America to see them playing together! Allison said she had never seem him play with a full band, so I thought we were all in for a treat! Uh, no... 'cause out came... you know, I hate to say mean things... but out came this cheesy bar band. The lead singer/guitarist is sooo in love with himself! He has the cheesy, self-satisfied demeanor of a Used Car Salesman, or a Local Newscast Weather Guy. Ouch! And the bass player, with his Justin Guarini 'do, kept making these weird faces, like pursing his lips together while he bobbed his head back and forth, and crouching down low with his bass. Weird. Annoying. The drummer (while very talented, to be fair) would throw his sticks in the air and catch them. Ew. Did I mention the word "annoying"?

So they came out and played a song on their own...followed by another one...followed by another one!!! We were all completely aghast, because the EMP did not tell us there were going to be two opening acts! Plus the tickets said "8:00 to 10:30" and we were scared the opening act was cutting into "Joseph Time". (What actually did happen was Joseph played until past 11:30, but we didn't know that was going to happen at the time!!!) So we were pissed.

Joseph Arthur: But thankfully, they left the stage, and Joseph came out by himself. This is how Allison has seem him play in the past. I'm not going to do it any justice, but I'm going to try and explain his set up: He comes out with just his acoustic guitar (which is beautifully hand-painted with plastic snakes glued on to it), two microphones and a whole mess of effects pedals. He starts out the song by beating a simple rhythm on the body of his guitar, recording it, and then playing it back, so he has his beat. And then he'll play a simple guitar riff, record that, and loop that back, so then he has his rhythm guitar. He just kinda builds his songs, all by himself, with just a simple acoustic guitar! It's so awesome to watch, and it's never awkward at all! Even as he's building the song, it's totally in time with the song itself. And he'll also take his second mic, and record a backing vocal, loop that, then record a second part harmony vocal over that! And then he'll get on his main microphone, and do three-part harmonies...WITH HIMSELF! : O

So, for the first couple of songs, I don't think my jaw ever came up off the ground. I was just utterly in awe. I don't know his songs well enough to say what all he played, but I do know that one of the first songs he did was "Honey And The Moon" which simply made me melt, especially at the end, when he layered his vocals and kinda did a "round" with himself!

Alas, but then the annoying band came back out, ruining the magic of just Joseph and his songs! Eww Eww Eww. So although I loved seeing Joseph, and although I was dying for him to play "Mercedes" (the song that really made me decide to go to this show), I decided to head out and run back to Ballard to see Tullycraft!