Patrick Wolf at Joe's Pub, 09/21/12

Patrick Wolf's second evening at Joe's Pub was filled with the same heart and care as the night before. There was even the addition of video footage being projected onto the back wall while he played. A lot of the video was from scattered home movies his parents took of him as a child and unused footage from the never released Armistice video. My favorite snippet was of a 6-year-old Patrick locked up in stocks, apparently his folks thought that random act of child torture was hilarious (I have to agree).

There were many moments where I found myself holding my breath. When the familiar chords of "Pumpkin Soup" began to play (on the eve of the Autumnal Equinox) I literally sucked in a sharp gasp of recognition, and froze on the spot... a tear glistening in my eye. I was so frozen, that when Patrick stopped, and begged for lyrics, I couldn't say a word. Words escaped me. ME. I can't believe it still. It's one of my all time favorite B-Sides... It reminds me of my childhood near the waters of Long Island, it always struck such a familiar nostalgic chord within me... and I couldn't speak! One fellow concert goer- Christopher- who apparently put in the request shouted out "It's fine! Make a mess of it!" to gleeful laughter. An apologetic Patrick responded simply saying "I really should've learned the lyrics again!". 

The only downside to the show, was the hilariously sarcastic but certainly disenchanted "meltdown" Patrick had in response to Joe's Pub telling him his time was almost up. He revealed to us that he will never play Joe's Pub again- that they mistreated him and his crew, and found it ludicrous that we paid for tickets, and then had to buy food and drink once inside. Evidently there was little courtesy and monumental amounts of greed. He then grabbed at his set list, and very dramatically yet with a lot of humorous playfulness crumbled it up into a ball and threw it on the floor! We all laughed and cheered with him- as he apologized to the people whose requests would sadly not be honored. He then said "Let's end this on a POSITIVE note!" with a dedication to Connie & Adam whose anniversary was that night! A very upbeat rendition of "The Magic Position" was then performed, with all of us at Patrick's demand to get up and out of the ridiculously cramped and packed in chairs. We laughed, clapped to the tell tale beat, and hooted gleefully along. It was certainly the best way to turn a jaded frown on its head.

Here is the Setlist:

Bluebells

House

Paris

Hard Times

Tristan

The Libertine

Vulture

Oblivion

Teignmouth

Shadow Sea

Together

London

Pumpkin Soup

Penzance

The Magic Position