Ritter struggles to balance upbeat past, dour present
Josh Ritter
With Hem
At: Avalon, Saturday
The guitar-strumming troubadour Josh Ritter performed at Avalon on Saturday, and in a testament to this folk singer's pop-star caliber appeal, the Lansdowne Street nightclub was transformed into a cavernous coffeehouse. Ladies screamed ''I love you!" from the comfort of their folding chairs. A disco ball hung limp from the ceiling in anticipation of Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee's late-night DJ set. But Ritter and his three-piece band worked the room, as it were, trying valiantly to turn poems into anthems and political diatribes into poignant ear candy.
Ritter's new album, ''The Animal Years," is a largely sober affair built around a pair of antiwar songs, and he played both of them during his 90-minute set. ''I don't know who wakes up in the morning knowing everything, but a few people do, and they're running things," Ritter said introducing ''Thin Blue Flame," a startling epic that marks a startling shift for Ritter -- away from tender matters of the heart and toward the disquieting events of our time. The song began as a languorous ballad, swelled to a rant, and exploded -- much like ''the beating hearts that blossom into walking bombs" -- in a chaotic, fuzzed-out wash. It was a riveting 10 minutes.
''Girl in the War," a sweeter and more circuitous approach to the issue of the day, suffered from its built-in identity crisis. Like the drummer who held a wooden stick in his left hand and a soft mallet in his right, the song was now muted, now pointed, and never quite persuasive.
That murky divide colored Ritter's entire performance, which featured the bulk of ''The Animal Years" as well as a handful of tracks from 2003's spirited ''Hello Starling" and 2001's rootsy ''Golden Age of Radio." The energy at the show ricocheted from dour to exuberant, with parched ''Idaho" and pensive ''Best for the Best," both humorless new tunes, jockeying for mood-setting position with irrepressible ''Kathleen" and the scrappy country-rocker ''Me & Jiggs." Inevitably, artist and audience alike struggled to find footing somewhere in the middle.
Ritter hasn't abandoned hope entirely; the new album features a number of tracks that pass for upbeat. ''Wolves" was seared with burning organ courtesy of keyboardist Sam Kassirer, and Ritter executed an awkward little twirl during ''Lillian, Egypt." But his heart wasn't in it. Even the efforts of the Town Criers, a male vocal quartet that evidently reunited for this gig couldn't free the love song ''Good Man" from the artist's ominous world view. It colors everything now in darker hues.
Maybe the boyish wonder that infused ''Hello Starling" with such unfettered joy just doesn't apply anymore. Indeed, one can't help but empathize with Ritter's troubled outlook. At the same time, one can't help feeling that the other guy was a lot more fun.
The New York ensemble Hem opened the show with a set of contemporary Americana played to pristine perfection on mandolin, glockenspiel, pedal-steel, and a tidy mess of other earthy instruments. Frontwoman Sally Ellyson sang the group's placid songs in a water-clear voice to lovely, if occasionally numbing, effect.
Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com. 
