Apparently a music festival in Olympia, WA unknowingly booked an impostor Jonathan Richman. They discovered the scam before showtime, which is kind of disappointing as I'm genuinely curious if the faker actually intended to perform.

[tinyurl.com]

I'm kind of astonished anyone would go to the trouble of faking a Jonathan Richman appearance.

Funny! I've seen him perform three times from 1985 to around 2016. It hadn't occurred to me before your post, but the most recent show might have been an imposter! He was being quite a diva - complaining about noisefrom the ventilation system and whatnot.

The last time I saw him it was more of a stand-up comedy act than concert. He only did seven songs, I think, and all of those included long sections of him making observations about the songs, then between numbers, he'd go off on extended monologues about whatever. It was still an incredibly entertaining show, but completely different from every other show I'd ever seen him do. So maybe that was the impostor, too.

Honestly, if it was a credible impression, I don't know that I'd catch on, for the simple fact that it would never occur to me that there would be such a thing as a Jonathan Richman impersonator. It's like a few years ago on Thanksgiving, I got in the food line behind my 20-something cousin who's a lawyer in Brooklyn. He had his girlfriend with him, a tiny, beautiful blonde who introduced herself to me by her unusual first name, which is the same unusual first name as a tiny, beautiful blonde actress who isn't super famous, but has been in enough movies and tv shows that I know her name and recognize her when she turns up in things. So I noted that in my head but thought nothing more of it until later that afternoon when my brother says to me "Hey, what are some of the movies Trevor's girlfriend has been in?" An actress whose work I was familiar with, who I recognize in movies and on tv introduced herself to me BY NAME, an unusual one at that, and I still didn't recognize her, because who the hell expects to meet a movie star standing in line with paper plates in their cousin's basement in a podunk Illinois suburb of St. Louis? But based on that experience, I have to wonder if I would recognize a fake Jonathan, if in fact he was the least bit credible a facsimile because I would never expect anyone to bother being a fake.

(I was at a party cuz a friend of mine was DJing, and someone said, hey that woman looks like Darryl Hannah. Ha, like she'd be at any party I’d be invited to. I looked right at the actual Darryl Hannah but still thought: nah, no way.)

breno Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The last time I saw him it was more of a stand-up
> comedy act than concert. He only did seven songs,
> I think, and all of those included long sections
> of him making observations about the songs, then
> between numbers, he'd go off on extended
> monologues about whatever. It was still an
> incredibly entertaining show, but completely
> different from every other show I'd ever seen him
> do. So maybe that was the impostor, too.


You are also describing the last Peter Murphy concert that I attended!!! And Murphy was Eddie Izzard funny!

Still, Fake Jonathan Richman…there's something weird happening now. In case you might not have noticed.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

breno Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The last time I saw him it was more of a stand-up
> comedy act than concert. He only did seven songs,
> I think, and all of those included long sections
> of him making observations about the songs, then
> between numbers, he'd go off on extended
> monologues about whatever. It was still an
> incredibly entertaining show, but completely
> different from every other show I'd ever seen him
> do. So maybe that was the impostor, too.


You are also describing the last Peter Murphy concert that I attended!!! And Murphy was Eddie Izzard funny!

Still, Fake Jonathan Richman…there's something weird happening now. In case you might not have noticed.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

As a long-time fan who has seen Pal Jonathan in person, I like to think I could suss out a phony. But maybe if you're in the back rows, and the sound isn't that great? Still, he's such a distinctive performer and has such a hard-core fan base, it seems like a pretty foolish con. As opposed to this old post about the likes of Little River Band and Redbone impersonators:
[trouserpress.com]
Who would know?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2021 12:42AM by MrFab.

It's my belief that the Little River Band is the most successful band of all time without ever being anyone's (outside of band relatives and suchlike) favorite band. Even back in their heyday when they were landing a ridiculous number of top 40 hits worldwide, it's impossible to imagine anyone saying "The Little River Band is my favorite band of all time!" Those words have never been spoken by anyone in history, yet LRB sold a shit ton of records.

If Wikipedia's page can be trusted, Little River Band still exists, and prior to the pandemic, went out on tours regularly ... with no original members in its lineup.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2021 04:04PM by Delvin.

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2021 11:25PM by That One Guy.