After seeing Daniel Johnston perform live on two occasions within the last year, it becomes apparent – disturbingly so – that there are two very different types of Johnston fans: those who show up to witness something special, and those who show up to witness a spectacle. Without fail his fans are granted a glimpse of both.

The opening band, Spanish Prisoners, are not great, to put it mildly. Even so, the concert-goers at Highline Ballroom’s Thursday night packed house remain patient, orderly, taking the edge off with cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon. That is until the final verse of Spanish Prisoners’ final song when an ice cube is hurled onstage, thus pelting the singer in the head. Moments later the band wisely exit stage left.

Daniel Johnston, the genius of lo-fi, takes the stage, a thick music stand as a buffer between him and the audience. Both his body and voice are shaky but he doesn’t appear nervous. He plays unaccompanied except for his small fretless guitar that in shape resembles Paul McCartney’s early bass guitar, a curious choice seeing as how minutes later he will perform the Lennon/McCartney classic, "You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away." His movements are unpolished yet he shines.

Daniel announces he will be back in a minute, “with the band.” I take this to mean his Texas band, Danny and the Nightmares. He reappears, but with Spanish Prisoners as his backing band. Ugh! As the band stumbles through one of Johnston’s most profound anthems ("Walking the Cow"), this once moderately fast percussive song turns into a sludgy dirge, utterly out of tune. Johnston is too in the zone to sweat the small stuff. When a G chord is needed, the keyboardist insists upon playing a C, and the drummer doesn’t know which way is up. An artist as brilliant as Johnston is best when he stands alone, he does not need this or any other gang of stoolies nearly tarnishing his legacy. On my way out I pass a card table hawking the supporting act’s album, titled: Songs to Forget. How appropriate.

words and photo by Chad Menville