Went to see Josh Ritter play in Hamburg in the Prinzenbar the other night. The club was really small and there were about 40 people there. He sings country-rock songs about Momma, trains, trucks, prison, and gettin’ drunk. He’s gonna be big someday.
(How fucking random. A marathon with about 200 runners is going past my front door. Polizei are blocking the street and a crowd has gathered to cheer them on. Man, I need to get to the gym.)
Um anyway, it was an awesome show. We hung out with him a little bit after the show and found him to be a sincerely nice guy. We saw him play here a few months ago without his band, who rock, and we bought a CD. After the show we put it on in the car and the CD was skipping all over the place because something was spilled all over it. We decided we would just exchange it at the next show. After the show we had to deal with his road manager who didn’t believe us. He said there was nothing wrong with it and then said if he were to exchange it, what would he do with the one we exchanged? He can’t sell it again. I said something like, “If there is something wrong with it, it shouldn’t have been sold in the first place.” At this point he was getting in my face and accused me of “copping ‘tude”. M jumped in and said something to this effect: “We have witnesses who heard it as well and can back us up. Could you please just ease our mind and exchange it? If there isn’t a problem with it, you can just sell it at the next show. Nothing gained, nothing lost.” Josh stepped in and told the road manager to stop sweating us and just give us a new one. Thanks Josh. You rock! He’ll be playing with Joan Baez this summer in Hamburg.
(Wha? Now all the runners are coming back up the street from the opposite direction. What’s going on out there?)