We wanted to see him play guitar. Despite the beauty, the unexpected fragility of the CCA gig last May, where he sat behind a baby grand piano, we wanted to hear the diamond-hard storm of the 'Glasgow Sunday' live cd, also recorded in the Arches this time last year. In giving us that, the thing had the familiar feel of a Greatest Hits show- if it's possible to know where you where in a world where there's no light.
He played loud, he howled like a dog, he nearly smiled at one point, and the first song even had a chorus of sorts ('I'm gonna put on my walkin' shoes/ I got those walkin' blues...')- the strange wonderment of the show came from the suspicion that Jandek is a confident and practised performer. The most anonymous and enigmatic recording artist ever is a live hit.
I'll tell you what I didn't expect- I didn't expect him to tune up before he started, but he did. Then he tuned up again halfway through. The guitar, I think, was so new that it still had the sticker on it from being bought in the shop. There was a moment of poignancy where, at the end of the last song he gathered up his lyrics from the lyric stand and wandered to the back of the stage, where he waited for what seemed like forever on his drummer and bass player friends to gather up their stuff. He didn't want to leave alone. Even isolation and disconnection, it seems, need company in public.
