The news that legendary bipolar outsider musician Daniel Johnston was touring this year was met by yours truly with no small amount of surprise. While i had become interested in Johnston’s career thanks to the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston (yes, i’m not gonna put on airs here–while i had heard of Daniel before that movie’s release, it was the film that truly opened the door to Daniel’s psyche for me), i hadn’t been paying enough attention to realize that he was actually healthy enough to play shows, let alone tour. So when tickets went on sale for his Feb. 7th concert at historic Turner Hall in Milwaukee, i grabbed mine immediately. After all, what are the chances he’ll come back to Brewtown any time soon?
My friends and i showed up at Turner around 8:30, just in time to miss opening act The Scarring Party, but let’s not dwell on that. As we made our way into the hall, the second opening band, Milwaukee’s John Sieger and The Subcontinentals, were playing incredibly boring, vanilla adult contemporary blues-rock that appealed to…well, i’m not sure who. Maybe there were some fifty-year-old Wisconsin Area Music Industry members in the audience. I know it made my friend Alex “Climax Denial” Kmet want to claw his eyes out, since that’s easier and more evocative than clawing out one’s ears, which would have made more sense. I wanted him to help me with mine. (Ears or eyes, you ask? Yes. Ears AND eyes.)
As Johnston began his set with “Speeding Motorcycle,” he had the Subcontinentals behind him, assuming the role of nondescript backing band, to which, frankly, they were better suited. Still, my friends and i let out a sigh of relief when they left the stage, leaving Daniel alone with his guitar, his songs, his wavering voice (and hands), and his adoring audience. About those hands–they shook throughout the show, betraying either nerves or some side effect from his condition. Either way, it provided a convenient microcosm of the larger performance in progress–Daniel, alone on stage, fighting with every last ounce of resolve to battle back the demons and put on a show for the Milwaukeeans yelling “we love you Daniel!” And battle he did, with guitar, piano, and his college friend Brett Hartenbach, who played a good chunk of the set on acoustic guitar while Daniel just sang, vibrating with electricity from either his music or the dark bits of his brain–you decide which. Both, most likely.
Through the entire show i sat, my every ounce of attention fixated on Daniel’s earnest, childlike voice, drinking in every rhythmic inaccuracy, every occasionally flubbed note. There’s a school of thought (mostly expressed when discussing the late schizophrenic Chicago street performer Wesley Willis) that says it’s unkind to enjoy seeing a mentally damaged soul bear their heart onstage–that it’s tantamount to exploitation somehow. Which is ridiculous, of course. Watching Daniel Johnston perform his signature encore of “True Love Will Find You in the End” is nothing short of inspiring. To see someone who’s lived as difficultly as Daniel Johnston, only to live as fully as he has (and to have been found by that True Love, even if it’s in the form of weird douchey college hippies obnoxiously yelling “DANIEL!” between every song right behind where i was sitting, consarn it), makes the shit we have to deal with every day seem like a cakewalk by comparison.
But screw all the eloquent waxing and flowery prose–it’s just a damn good show. If the tour’s coming near you, don’t be an idiot–this is a once-in-a-lifetime engagement. Do it up.
Current Confirmed Daniel Johnston remaining tour dates:
02-20 Boston, MA - Roxy
02-21 New York, NY - Highline Ballroom
02-22 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero Theater
02-23 Washington, DC - Black Cat
02-24 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
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Comment by amber — February 12, 2008 @ 8:31 pm
awesome.
he lives here! he goes to the local book shops with his mom (seriously) and buys old ninja vhs tapes. it’s pretty great.