The great Jonathan Richman is set to kick off three nights of shows at The Somerville Theatre tonight (October 20), and while there’s not much left to say about the iconic Modern Lovers frontman, brilliant songwriter, and enduring acoustic balladeer, a fun story was unearthed recently in one of our 617 Q&As.
In it, Vanyaland Senior Writer Michael Christoper was interviewing Gordon Gano ahead of the Violent Femmes’ show in Boston, and the format of the chat echoes the city’s area code: 6 questions about a timely topic; 1 recommendation of whatever the subject wants to discuss; and 7 of something, usually a rapid-fire word association segment. For that middle portion, the 1 recommendation, Gano offered up an anecdote about Richman that not many, if anyone, had ever heard before. Read it below:
“Just recently I heard some Jonathan Richman again, and I just thought, ‘I just love Jonathan.’ He just keeps, in some ways for me, he just gets better and better. All the time. Every time. And I’ve had the great pleasure of at times speaking with him,” Gano tells us.
And then he reveals this: “Now, here’s a little thing most people don’t know. Before Violent Femmes, it was the first time I had had an opening gig or in a venue and somebody was kind of heckling me while I was playing. And I think at that show, maybe I had one of my brothers back me up with guitar, which was great. We’re playing and there’s somebody kind of heckling, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying, and I had not done many shows, and I was, I dunno, 17 years old or something like that. Anyway, and then this person comes right backstage as soon as I get off the stage and I’m like, ‘This is the person that was just sort of yelling stuff at me.’ And then the person says, ‘Hi, I’m Jonathan. You sound just like I did when I was your age’. When I told him, within the last few years, I said, ‘You just get better and better.’ And I loved his response. His response was, ‘Well, that’s the idea, isn’t it?'”
Pretty great stuff right there from Gano.
And oh, by the way, for those going to the Somerville shows this weekend, here’s a message from Richman ahead of time, via the Somerville Theatre:
“The music we’re doing now works well in quiet places like theaters and performing art centers. We still don’t use a program or a set list so we don’t know what we’ll do until we do it. Please do not expect old songs. Many singers my age do a retrospective; this show is not like that. It’s mostly stuff made up in the last 3 and 4 years. Some of the songs presented might be in different languages; this is not to be esoteric or clever, it’s because the different languages help me express different feelings sometimes. One last thing, my idea of a good show has nothing to do with applause. It’s about if all the songs I sang that night were ones that I felt.”
For those keeping score, Davis Square isn’t terribly close to 128, and nearest Stop ‘n’ Shop is three miles away.
JONATHAN RICHMAN :: Friday, October 20 to Sunday, October 22 at The Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square in Somerville, MA :: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m., all ages, $35 to $45 :: Event info and tickets
