Concert Update // Daniel Johnston

I’ve seen a fair number of shows featuring a fair number of artists, but as far as legend status goes, people I feel honoured & privileged to have seen Daniel Johnston has to hold the top spot (followed by Toots & the Maytals, who opened for Dave Matthews Band back in ‘98, when I would’ve wanted to see DMB and didn’t know who Toots was). Actually, I had only just seen the film The Devil and Daniel Johnston a few days before I saw that the show was announced. What fortuitous circumstances!!

Really, if you aren’t familiar with Daniel Johnston yet, this article in Salt Lake’s City Weekly explains about as eloquently as you can just why you should love Daniel Johnston. I meant to write something here after I saw The Devil and Daniel Johnston, but now I’m glad I didn’t because I would have gotten it all wrong. I didn’t quite get it yet, but at the show I heard it. Truth. The ability to express things properly, to peg an emotion. It’s what initially drew me to Bob Dylan, it’s something I noticed at my first Rademacher show, and it’s something I feel in Daniel Johnston.

Regarding the show itself, a few quick notes. It’s interesting to note that Daniel only played guitar on the first two songs, his friend playing guitar on a few more before Band of Annuals, who opened, came up as a backing band. According to Dave, who knows his psychotic meds, Daniel was shaking like he was on lithium. This might be why he only played guitar on two songs. Also, “Devil Town” is the most excellent encore, and truly made the evening complete.

So now I’ve got music for you to hear. “Rock ‘n’ Roll/EGA” you might recognize from Empire Records. It’s the songs that plays when Mark ends up on stage with Gwar. Bright Eyes’ cover of “Devil Town” is what Dave had on his computer at the time. I chose to buy a CD instead of a “Hi, How Are You?” shirt, so more music will likely be forthcoming. The CD seemed perfectly targeted to me, actually, since as you may know I’m something of a tribute album whore. Discovered Covered has one disc of covers and one disc of the originals of those songs. The group of artists covering songs is interesting because I remember thinking during the show about artists who’ve been notably influenced by Daniel Johnston, and a good number of those (I’m thinking specifically of Eels) are on that CD. I’ll save more words for later, keep you on your toes.

Daniel Johnston on MySpace | Daniel Johnston Official | Pictures from the Show (courtesy Taryn Paye)