Great show by Teddy Thompson
– one of the best I’ve seen this year (including Thompson père at the Birchmere
in September). It was the first time I had seen him as a headliner; previous
encounters had been opening for Emmylou Harris at Strathmore and doing a set
with his band at the WXPN music festival in the summer of 2008.
Although his albums feature quite a bit of production,
including the occasional string section, the songs came across just as well if
not better with just Teddy and his acoustic guitar as they do on CD. He also
had a great rapport with the audience, including talking us into helping out
with the chorus to “What’s This.”
He did 14 songs (if my notes are correct) during the main
set, starting with “Delilah” and ending
with “Don’t Know What I Was Thinking.” Came back for 2 encore sets, the second
of which consisted of “Brink of Love” (a new one for me, but obviously not for
others in the audience) and the classic “Separate Ways” (video of a performance from 2011), which really should have
made my Top 100 list. Whole show ran about 90 minutes.
He announced during the show that he had some copies of
an EP that he had done several years ago for sale – had just found some extra
copies, apparently. I was lucky enough to get the last one (for a mere 5 bucks,
no less).
I also enjoyed the opening set by Irish singer /
guitarist Danny Burns, accompanied
by a fiddle player. Highlights included a slowed-down version of the Pogue’s
Christmas classic “Fairytale of New York” (although it made me miss the late
Kirsty MacColl who sang on the original).
Strangely, this was my first trip ever to Jammin’ Java
in Vienna VA. Everything was great except for the getting there, which took an
hour and ten minutes. (For you locals, Route 123 was jammed (pun intended) all
the way from Tyson’s into downtown Vienna.) It took less than 30 minutes to get
home, well after the rush hour was over.
Jammin’ Java has reserved tables/seats, which is a big
plus since it eliminates the need to get there really early and line up for a
good spot. Food-wise, I can recommend the SPICY PORK ‘N TOMATILLO chili; I didn’t
find it all that spicy, but it was good and there was plenty of it.
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