I was raised on Richard Thompson (at least Fairport Convention) and love his work. But because he is one of those touring workhorses who seemed to always be coming through town, I kept putting off seeing him. Then COVID hits and I'm like, dammit, that guy is old and I'll hate myself if he goes the way of Toots Hibbert (who I also neglected to see and was on top of my "next to see" list, alas). Thankfully, Richard did not and I grabbed the first tickets I could get as he started up his never ending tour again. Finally to the point: Amazing show. He and the audience at the Whittaker Center were clearly done with being pent up. His playing was just insane, he was funny and engaging, took the call outs for songs by drunken ex-hippies with grace, played the hits, played new stuff, hell, played for over two hours. Really, really great performance. For a guy who kind of has the reputation for music you listen to while crying into your whisky, slowing drowning in your bathtub, his delivery couldn't have been farther from it. And, good god, how he could take something like 52 Vincent Black Lightning, already perfect and perfectly instrumentally dense and cram even more into it without it seeming like he was trying, I just can't even begin to assess. This guy. You need to see this guy.