Not much to be honest. Josh Ritter does extremely pleasant Nick Drake influenced country, nothing wrong with it and you will probably enjoy the gig if you like The Frames and Damien Rice. I personally cannot understand the hype and praise heaped on him here in Ireland. He's good but nowhere near in the same league as someone like Gillian Welch. He shares Glen Hansards love of telling long anecdotes on stage so his gig will probably go on very late. I have seen him three times in Cork because some of my friends are big fans of his and I have to say each performance was pretty much a carbon copy of the last one. After you've seen him once, his gigs are very predictable. If you can see him do, but if I were you I wouldn't go out of my way to see one of his gigs or go to one of his gigs instead of a seeing band I liked.

K thanks a lot for the input. I love Damien Rice and what I've heard of the Frames, so I'm guessing I'll like Josh Ritter too. I'm guessing it'll be awhile before he comes through Seattle again. I'm going to try to go, and I'll bring my camera. Gillian's brilliant, isn't she? :)

Ive seen Josh a number of times and i have to admit to liking his music quite a lot. As Binokular was saying, if you like Ricer and the Frames then you will enjoy Josh. But i suppose he is not everyones cup fo tea The Ricer/Frames gig should be fun. Are you a Frames fan ?

I love what I've heard of the Frames. I've got Dance the Devil, but enjoy the live stuff I've heard more--a solo Hansard bootleg and some stuff I downloaded from www.davidrochford.com. I'll try to write up a review of both shows for Cluas...wish I could get my camera in to the Rice/Frames show but it's a bigger venue (seats about 1400) that might be sticky about such things.

I saw him in Boston as support to The Frames. Nothing to write home about at all.

Nothing particularly against Josh. I do think that we (certainly Dublin) and a bit weary of singer songwriters peddling their fragile, delicate wares. Equally, this predisposition to telling rambling, aimless stories really pisses me off. It is a vain indulgence as it assumes everyone in the audience is hanging on their every word. I go to a gig, I expect to hear tunes, not someones life story.

Personally I like Josh Ritter - his music is not pushing thre boat out by any means, but I would say If you haven't seen defintley go once - I have seen him a couple of times as support to The Frames, Beth Orton and he has been pretty good on his own or with his backing band. If the crowd is good and quiet for his quieter songs it is really nice, and sometimes I quite like the stories he tells, although I can understand why people don't like this, soemtimes it just gives the gig that little extra touch - maybe a little more memorable. At the same time I have seen bands play were they say, "and this is our new song" "and this is our new song", people like Paddy Casey, which is boring and I might as well stayed at home and listened to his CD.

hmmm.........Ive seen Josh and I have to say I thought he and his band were outstanding ! I used to be a fan of Rice but now hes been churning out the same old stuff for the last 3 years! As for Josh and his stories....I find hes usually to bloody nervous! I'll be going to see him when he comes back to Ireland in May. And he hasnt turned into a prick like Rice

Well crap, I missed it. Had too much going on. I did see Damien w/the Frames on Monday, though, and it blew me away.

Who impressed you more, Ricer or the Frames ?

Well the Frames were opening, so I'm sure they kept their set toned down. I was more excited about seeing them than Damien, but it was Damien who put on the much more intense show. I've only heard Damien's album, which he did a lot of songs from, but he also did a bunch of other stuff that was much more abrasive, with a lot of distortion on both his vocals and guitar. I wasn't expecting that at all. I loved it, but a lot of people didn't seem to care for it--there were quite a few people who left the show. Not enough to make major gaps in the crowd, but enough that I noticed them getting and leaving. (And I should say--I was on the second balcony of a theater that holds around 2-3,000 people, and couldn't see any of the crowd below, so I could only judge the crowd by the people in the second balcony.) Damien really threw himself into his songs. It was quite an emotionally intense performance. I just can't imagine him doing that every night. Does he? And is this more harsh style (in comparison to the music on O) something he's always had going on? But don't get me wrong, the Frames were excellent, and I was so happy to see them. They did everything I could've hoped, except play for another hour. Well, I was really hoping Glen would come out and do something with Damien at the end, but he didn't--although I heard he did in LA. When Damien did "Cold Water," he had all the lights on the stage turned off. It was pitch black except for the little LCD lights on their equipment. I don't know how they saw to play anything--except the cellist had a small light that it looked like she put inside her cello, because all I could see was the f-holes glowing. I thought it was a pretty bold move. They left the lights off the entire song, except for a few seconds near the end, when some lights that were on the stage behind the band directed at the crowd blared on, blinding everyone. The show actually overwhelmed me so much I couldn't even really dwell on it for a couple days. I've also been extremely busy this week. :) It was just--wow!

I love the whole singer/songwriter thing. I have to say, though, that's not what Damien Rice did at all in the show I saw. I think a lot people went expecting that, but they got something way different. I'm really excited for his next album.