Last night Josh Ritter played to a full house at the Somerville Theatre. This tour he is playing a solo acoustic set, stripping down the songs from their album counterparts. The highlight of the show for me was “Girl in the War”, sounding raw on the damning refrain “If they can’t find a way to help her, they can go to Hell.”
Ritter appeared to be having more fun on stage than almost anyone I’ve seen (with the possible exception of Wayne Coyne), which infused the set with his upbeat energy even when the songs are decidedly not. (I amused myself thinking that this was all an act, and he’s just doing the solo tour to cut the band out of the money and girls.) The crowd seemed lifted by his music on an otherwise cold and icy Friday night.