Photos that Rich Orris took at last week’s Josh Ritter show. The recount from our own Alli Marshall, who went:
On Tuesday, Feb. 15, Josh Ritter played to a packed house at The Orange Peel. It was the day after Valentine’s Day and, though the Asheville show was not scheduled to be one of Ritter’s series of Valentine’s-themed concerts, the mic stands were decorated with red silk flowers and the band appeared on stage dressed as if for a Sadie Hawkins dance.
Ritter played his back catalogue and songs from his latest album as well as “Galahad,” a fairly risque and as-yet-unrecorded new song. The entire performance was magical (beginning with a stellar opening set by Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit who seemed genuinely disarmed by the audience’s rapt attention); highlights included a handful of solo songs by Ritter and a lovely cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes.”
