Jonathan Richman

[MODERN LOVER] “Once I was young and intense,” sang Jonathan Richman on 2008’s Because Her Beauty Is Raw and Wild. We remember, Jon. That was the Jonathan Richman who declared he’d “go insane if you won’t sleep with me,” who said he won’t pretend to like a girl “when she makes me feel appalled.” The new Jonathan Richman—who has actually been around for 30-plus years—is more likely to compare himself to a little airplane than complain about not getting laid. But the memory of that brasher, nervier artist hangs over Richman’s nevertheless unique discography, if only because it lasted for one single, agitated burst. Before his first group, the Modern Lovers, had even finished its classic, self-titled debut, Richman wanted to scrap what they’d recorded and try a mellower, island-influenced sound, which he’s been exploring and refining ever since, right up to his last album, 2010’s O Moon, Queen of Night on Earth. But Richman remains a punk at heart: When he walked into tiny Northeast Alberta dive the Know in 2010, he fell in love, and asked to play there. Now he’s returning for a three-night stand, offering an impossibly rare opportunity to spend an intimate evening with one of America’s most distinctive songwriters.