Josh Ritter

Had the absolute pleasure of seeing this man in concert last night. To say it was one of my favorite concert experiences would be vastly underselling it: This was my favorite concert I have been to. Ever. Even though he doesn't run around and do flips, Josh's energy on stage is absolutely unmatched. His vocals held up flawlessly throughout the whole show, sounding almost exactly like he did in the studio. The highlight of the concert definitely came towards the end during his performance of Kathleen, where he had a sick moment of audience interaction. Josh's incredible lyricism is further emphasized in a live setting. Hearing him sing his poetic and beautiful lines in person recontextualized many of his songs to me. Especially The Curse, one of his best songs. The song follows a mummy and his discoverer as they fall in love. The discoverer then dies and the mummy is left with this curse that he can never truly find love because he is immortal and any lover he has will die eventually. Josh's performance and interpretation of this song was another highlight of the concert. I also want to give a quick shout-out to the opener, Tre Burt. He was definitely more subdued than Josh, but he still has amazing music and is also worth checking out. If you ever have the opportunity to see Josh Ritter live, you should definitely take it. His lyricism combined with his performance ability is next to none!