“It wasn’t THAT good!” Richard Thompson said in (mock?) humility at The Egg Saturday. “Or, was it?” His impossible guitar break had just ignited the usual noisy crowd rapture. And, it WAS that good.

Richard Thompson, center, and band, from left: Zak Hobbs, guitars and mandolin; Michael Jerome, drums; Thompson, guitars and lead vocals; Taras Prodaniuk, bass and; Zara Phillips, occasional guitar. All five sang.

Thompson’s first full-band tour in five years touched down here after Covid-time solo or duo shows with singer wife Zara Phillips, including a good Northampton performance in March. Those stripped-down shows were typically eloquent and skilled, but Thompson with band is a higher level of brilliant. Saturday, Phillips, bassist Taras Prodaniuk, drummer Michael Jerome and Thompson’s grandson-guitarist Zak Hobbs punched up Thompson’s tunes, both classic and new from his recent “Ship to Shore” album. 

With nearly cultish awed affection, fans feel Thompson tunes range from great to essential, and a show should include one or more of of the latter. Leaving Saturday’s show, longtime usher Erin Marie and I shared our lists, grateful that “Beeswing” got a heartfelt, funereal solo reading and naming “Vincent Black Lightning 1952,” “Ghosts in the Wind” and “Misunderstood” as faves.

“Beeswing,” on every fan’s fave list, brought fan rapture nine songs in. Thompson earned it, as usual, singing solo, sadder and wiser at 75 than when he wrote it at 45 and playing bell-like acoustic guitar.

Before that, Thompson and band muscled or mused their way through songs familiar or obscure, old and new. Prodaniuk and Jerome were all understated strength and simplicity, with electric fireworks from Thompson’s guitar (a pink Fender Strat early and late, black Gibson SG between) and Hobbs (white Fender Tele) going all exultant, anguished, doom-struck, desolate or delighted as Phillips strummed quietly and sang close harmony.

The new “Turnstile Casanova” hit hard to start with Thompson’s first overwhelming OMFG solo; then the cautionary “Take Care the Road You Choose” with a quieter blaze. Thompson urged his older fans, “Don’t die.” maybe noting the mostly gray hair and beards and canes in the three-quarter filled room.

After a good Hobbs guitar break in “Hard On Me,” Thompson played a better one, but he shared solo time throughout with Prodaniuk and Jerome, as well as his grandson.

Praising his late bandmate Sandy Denny, he fervently sang her “John the Gun” before slow-waltzing through the bitter “Withered and Died” from “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight,” best of his albums with first wife Linda. He then pumped “The Turning of the Tide” of similar vintage with stunning distorted guitar.

Understated acoustic guitar beautifully suited the wistfully nostalgic “Al Bowlly’s In Heaven,” evoking a kinder, pre-Thatcher Britain. Then, after a similarly evocative new “The Day That I Give In” came “Beeswing,” Thompson alone onstage with lost-love tenderness, haunting hypnotic delicacy of voice and guitar perfectly matched in yearning.

This whole stretch was strong as the band rejoined in the mid-tempo but heart-pumping new “What’s Left to Lose,” the vintage anti-war blitz “Guns Are the Tongues” and the new sarcastic waltz ballad “Singapore Sadie,” then “The Old Pack Mule” (also new) that somehow mixed humor and gruesomeness.

Wild guitars and a strong singalong marked “Tear Stained Letter” to close the 85-minute main set with explosive energy, fans’ singing growing into sustained yelling for more.

From left, Michael Jerome, Zak Hobbs, Richard Thompson, Zara Phillips and Taras Prodaniuk

Thompson returned alone with the understated “Dimming of the Day,” another Sandy Denny classic; but the encore surprised with the Idris Davies/Pete Seeger-penned Byrds’ folk-rock classic “Bells of Rhymney,” mighty and anthemic.

Solos by bass, drums and both guitars gave “Jealous Words” ferocious drive.

Saskatchewan is reputedly “so flat you can watch your dog run away for three days.” Openers Kaci and Clayton adapted their home province’s geography into a flat onstage affect to humorous effect. Kaci asked in a wan, decidedly un-festive voice if the crowd liked to party and pronounced herself winded after a low-key number. 

This all would have worn thin without their strong (when they pushed them) voices, interesting tunes and Thompson-like guitar chiming. Their Xanax-folk style would likely be devastating in a smaller room but wound up working surprisingly well at The Egg. They sang of parties far in the past, of recriminations, and of heading for the nursing home before teasing about bringing out Thompson to join them in their closer, “Matty Groves.” He didn’t, but the venerable song worked anyway.

NOTES:

All photos were from my seat, Row M; closer shots weren’t allowed.

The set list, procured and generously shared by super-fan friend JD, specifies “Angels to Rest” and “Man in Need” in the encore. But barring some temporary derangement on my part, it was instead “Dimming of the Day,” “Bells of Rhymney” and “Jealous Words” and ran a 12 crowd-pleasing minutes.