My friend and fellow editor Derek Holland emailed me about ten days ago to see if I was going to see Jim White at the Sugar Club on Tuesday last. Needless to say I was blissfully unaware that it was on and immediately thanked my lucky stars and Derek that I had been made aware of the gig. Long-standing friend Klaus Harvey had introduced me to Jim White about three years ago with “Wrong-Eyed Jesus” and I’ve been a fan ever since.
Anyhoo, I ordered up some tickets and rallied the Dublin-based members of d’Squad for a meet at the Sugar Club.
It was flippin’ brilliant. After a good support session from Tadhg Cooke, we were confronted by Jim White and his band – a guitarist named Patrick Hargon [1] and a new sheet-music-reading bassist called Christian who’d only met the other two for the first time the day before.
Jim White’s gigs aren’t so much concerts as a mixture of music, story-telling and being there. A fantastic night’s entertainment altogether, including a few new words in the lexicon like sceptimysticism – you know there’s a 5th dimension out there but you just don’t believe it.
I’m not a reviewer so I won’t try, suffice to say that it was one of the most enjoyable gigs I’ve been at for a long time and I hope that those folks going to the Tom Waits gig (I’m not) enjoy that as much with its attendant price tag. Brilliance altogether. I’m so glad that he played Still Waters, my favourite of his songs.
There was a kind of folksy vibe after the gig and Jim patiently greeted and spoke to many of the attending gigsters afterwards, including us. He volunteered that reading Pedro Paramo might be a clue to the lyric:
Yes and there are projects for the dead
And there are projects for the living…
Thought I must confess sometimes
I get confused by that distinction…
from Still Waters.
I’ll let you know after I’ve read it.
[1] Patrick is an interesting guy – he’s a fine guitarist, and he also teaches English to special needs kids in Omaha. We were wondering if the fact that he plays in a band give him exxtra kudos amongst his students. Probably does. He uses the word eschew.