Daniel Johnston.

Tonight I went to see Daniel Johnston at Concorde 2 in Brighton. I went purely to see Laura Marling, who I am going to controversially say, I was disappointed by, due to the fact her set was sooo short! When Daniel Johnston came on, I found it so inaccessible, due to his vocals and the fact that he was playing an instrument which produced a sound which wasn't pleasant on the ears. I went outside for a cig after the first couple of songs and really didn't want to go back in, I would have gladly gone home that night, just feeling a bit ripped off.

However, I went back in and was greeted by the noise of a tuned and soft guitar which wasn't being played by Daniel Johnston. He was purely doing the vocals. This is where it all changed. It let you just focus on what was coming out of his mouth and from his heart, instead of hearing a noise like a screaming cat dragging it's nails down a blackboard and slowly everything about him made sense.

His music can make you feel things in it's simplicity and charm in a way that I haven't felt before. Artists are meant to be these people who have seen it all done it all and you are listening to their composed lives through the lyrics, listening to Daniel Johnston is like listening to someone completely unaffected by how the outside world perceives him. It's genuinely like a big kid who is unaware and has completely poured his heart out. Seeing him live, there is a certain helplessness to him which only goes to accentuate the beauty of his songs.

Forget the melody, it's like poetry you'd write if you didn't give a fuck about metaphors, synonyms et al. He completely tells you how it is, in such an endearing way, by the end of the set you just don't really know what to say, you just turn to your friends in a sort of stunned amazement, as you aren't quite sure how he managed to have that effect on you.