The Nullifying, Defeating, Negating, Repeating Joy Of Life

Joanna Newsom @ Kings Theater 12/7/2015
Bridges & Balloons / Anecdotes / Soft as Chalk / Divers / Emily / Waltz of the 101st Lightborne / Have One on Me / Peach, Plum, Pear / Goose Eggs / Sapokanikan / Leaving the City / Cosmia / Time, As A Symptom // Sawdust & Diamonds / Baby Birch

Joanna Newsom “Time, As A Symptom”

I had put off writing about this song for weeks, and then figured I’d wait longer, because I knew I’d be seeing Joanna Newsom play this show. And I still feel oddly under qualified to write about it. The main thing I got from seeing Newsom live is how casual she appears on stage – not just in how she plays her instruments as though they’re purely an extension of gesture and reflex, but in her relaxed demeanor, and how the seriousness of her words don’t overtake the performance of the music. “Time, As A Symptom” is a very heavy song; I would go so far as to say it’s profound in the way it thinks about love and life and time and death. I imagine the chorus like a ladder, and she’s climbing up through the pain and struggle and tedium of life to arrive at the top, and seeing everything with a clear perspective from on high, and what she sees from there is nothing but joy and love. This wrecks me. It is a thought and musical moment so beautiful to me that it’s hard to listen to. I’m not always ready for it, and I think the only reason I didn’t cry when she performed it last night was because I’d been acclimated to the feeling of her music for over an hour at that point. If that climax came any sooner in the night, I just don’t know.

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