With only one album to his name – or his newly adopted name, that is -- Father John Misty couldn't help but avoid several slumping moments in his 80-minute performance Tuesday. "Fear Fun" is a half-great record, so it was no surprise the concert pretty much followed suit.
As is pointed out in the full review for Thursday's newspaper, the real-life Joshua Tillman might have been better off pulling songs from some of his earlier albums as "J. Tillman" than playing the dullards "I Love You, Honeybear" or "This Is Sally Hatchet." He did play a new song solo-acoustic to kick off the encore that was one of his weirdest and most curious tunes to date (in a good way), with lyrics about sounds like a truly messed-up relationship and the closing line, "I obliged later on when you begged me to choke you."
Between his sometimes crude between-song banter and many Bible-referencing songs – which aren't exactly defamatory but also would never make a church hymnal – I couldn't help but wonder how Tillman is going to go over with the Basilica Block Party's hosts. At least he'll be better off having a shorter set time that day. Here's his set list from Tuesday:
Funtimes in Babylon / Only Son of the Ladiesman / Nancy From Now On / I'm Writing a Novel / Misty's Nightmares 1 & 2 / This is Sally Hatchet / Well, You Can Do It Without Me / Now I'm Learning to Love the War / Tee Pees 1-12 / Everyman Needs a Companion / Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings ENCORE: new song / Happiness is a Warm Gun (Beatles cover) / I Love You, Honeybear
