Last installment, I promise!
Glutton for punishment that I am, I tuned in to Digital Club Network's
surprise live webcast of RLJ's show tonight at the 9:30 Club in
Washington DC. This was truly meant to be, boys and girls (and you,
Wally, r-u- reading this???), because she rose from the dead tonight! I
turned off all the lights in my living room, sat back and let Rickie
perform with much more spirit and enthusiasm than last night - the
setlist was completely worked around to include Trouble Man, Low Spark,
Skeletons, We Belong Together...it was as if last night never happened
(even though we all know it did and most likely will again..). Before she
played The Magazine, Rick informed us that the song was a play she wrote
about a woman walking away from a heroin deal on the Lower East side of
Manhattan, "Magazine" being the brand of smack stamped on the glassine
baggy. She said the girl in her play is fantasizing about how one day
soon she'll be able to walk through those same streets without ever
thinking of why she was there at that ugly moment....so therefore, it is
a song of great joy. She closed with 2(!!) encores, "Cloud of Unknowing"
and "Running From Mercy". The whole thing filled my heart with happiness
and a sense of (perhaps false) closure. This was meant to be. -Chris
