Joseph Arthur – La Sala Rossa – Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Thursday night at La Sala Rossa Joseph Arthur took the stage right at 9:00 pm without any delay or even an opening band. As he played guitar, he alternated between singing and playing harmonica, on top of looping foot stomping, guitar tapping, bass and organ pedals. Although the bass was perhaps a little too loud, the combination of the pedal layers was seamless. His sound live was a bit less polished than on record but contained many glorious noise-filled seconds and screeching pick-scratching.
This show was like none other I have seen as it was not only a music show. About halfway through his set, Arthur began to recite “I Miss the Zoo” – a poem of blue marijuana, erased illusions and angels of mercy, from his enormous NOTES FROM THE ROAD collection. While performing, he picked up his paint supplies and finished the pieces that were sitting on the stage. His various skills were a wonder to watch, especially since such versatile artists are rare to find.
Exactly an hour into his set, Joseph Arthur thanked the crowd and walked offstage. I, along with the rest of the crowd was surprised and somewhat disappointed. However Joseph came back on stage within minutes, and immediately began his second set. Joseph, who had already been pleasing the crowd all night, gave them even more reason to be happy by asking for song requests. This is when he played all the fan-favorites like “Toxic Angel”, “Vacancy” and “In The Sun”. After Joseph played both a second set and a bonus encore, he finished up by walking straight off stage to his merch table, where he again picked up his guitar and kept playing. After that set, there wasn’t a face in the crowd that looked even slightly disappointed. Joseph Arthur’s show was an over-indulgent pie of scrumptious sounds. – Amelia Robitaille
Joseph Arthur
Photography by Paisley Prevost
