Having now seen Jonathan Richman on several occasions with varying

sparse accompaniment, the story to my mind behind his current tour with a

complete band is not so much that he's playing with three other musicians, but

how good they sound behind him. I went into Richman's show at the 9:30

Club on Saturday (Oct. 19) with some apprehension about his use of a full band.

The essence of Jojo's art lies in his remarkable, typically solo, live

performances. Sadly, a number of times I've fallen in love with Richman's songs

after experiencing them live, only to be heartbroken when they appear on record

tainted by too much accompaniment. Such was the case with too many songs on

1995's You Must Ask the Heart (most notably the title track). I was

similarly dismayed by Jonathan's rerecordings of older songs for his latest

record, Surrender to Jonathan. To be fair, though, I had to admit that

some of the other tracks on Surrender turned out just fine with a full

band. Thus, it was with a heavy dose of hope and an equal measure of misgiving

that I approached Richman's show in Washington.

From the start, the band's

physical arrangement onstage--with drums, bass, and organ set to the side and

in back as a trio--established that this show was still Richman's.

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