The upbeat “Old Black Magic” and “Losing Battles,” both cuts from 2019’s Fever Breaks, showcase the Royal City Band as a tight rock ‘n’ roll quartet. The crowd yelped in excitement when Ritter sang, “All the other girls here are stars, you are the Northern Lights,” the opening lyric to the ever-charming “Kathleen.” The scaled-back rendition accentuated the song’s gentle side but lacked the electricity of the beloved Live at the Iveagh Gardens version. Midway through their set, The Royal City Band gathered at one microphone at the front of the stage and performed a couple songs acoustically. Hickman-who was dressed for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Ritter joked-alternated between an upright bowed bass and a sleek electric one.
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Kaufman’s guitar playing is a thing of meticulous erraticism, full of careful screeches and bellowing bass notes, adding texture and juxtaposition to Ritter’s clean acoustic sound. On songs like “Henrietta, Indiana” and “Thin Blue Flame,” Ritter rapped nearly breathlessly, while on songs like “Thunderbolt’s Goodnight” and “Empty Hearts,” his vocal melodies left space for lush instrumentation. Ritter stunned fans with the brilliant pre-apocalyptic ballad “The Temptation of Adam,” in which the narrator contemplates blowing up the world to preserve an isolated love “in a top-secret location three hundred feet under the ground.” The song’s blooming imagery brings to life an unusual romance: “Pretend this giant missile is an old oak tree instead/And carve our name in hearts into the warhead.” He interrupted a song to recount the time he left his beloved CD booklet atop a parking garage in Chicago, realized after he had driven to Wisconsin, drove back and found it untouched. broke out newer hits like “Getting Ready to Get Down” among aged fan-favorites like “Hotel Song.” Segways between songs were filled with the audience’s supportive heckling (loud “thank you”s) and Ritter’s illustrious storytelling.
Spanning his vast discography, Ritter and Co. The band, made up of guitarist Josh Kaufman, bassist Zack Hickman, pianist Sam Kassirer and drummer Ray Rizzo, then joined in for the shuffling “Good Man” and twangy “On the Water.” The audience watched in admiration, following Ritter’s lead on the chorus and hummed outro.
Ritter opened his set alone with the somber, spooky “Idaho,” named after his home state. On May 23, the dimpled singer-songwriter brought his Royal City Band to the Vic Theatre in Chicago, the city where-many years ago-he played his first show away from home. If Josh Ritter smiled any harder, he wouldn’t be able to sing. By Ethan Shanfeld Photos by Devon Spungin
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