I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 28, 2015] My Morning Jacket

After seeing My Morning Jacket this summer, I was definitely psyched to see them again.  My friend Jay is a fan who had never seen them before.  So we jumped at the chance to see them at the Beacon.  I bought tickets for the fourth of four nights (I would have picked the earlier night had I realized that Strand of Oaks was opening, but that was the night before Thanksgiving, which is not exactly a good going out night for some of us).

We decided to blow off the opener, Craig Finn, but unfortunately because of a delay on the 1 train, we missed the first ten minutes of MMJ as well.  This proved to suck hard because we missed “Victory Dance” and most of “Compound Fracture.”  It sucked even more because the rest of this first set had a very mellow feel to it and Jay and I were looking to rock out.

So this brings me to a pretty weird sensation at a show.  Can you say that you totally enjoyed something but were somehow disappointed at the same time?  And then retroactively realize that what you saw was pretty amazing, but you didn’t realize it in the moment?  Because I think we both felt that way.  The band was in top form, the music sounded great. The audience was totally into it.  And the songs themselves were good, we just wanted different songs.

It turns out that the four nights at the Beacon Theater were designed as a cool package–each night they’d play different songs and dip into some rare tracks.  I had no idea that that’s what they were planning.  I was just psyched to get tickets.  What this meant is that they had played a lot of the big songs earlier in the week (of course, they saved some great ones for our show as well).  So when Jay and I looked at each other after the first set and thought, huh I expected to hear more songs that I knew, well, now we realized why we didn’t.

It turned out to be an awesome show for old time fans who had seen them a lot.

Having said that, though, the show was still awesome.  MMJ are amazing live.  They have a great dynamic, Jim James can sing like nobody’s business (I can’t believe he can effortlessly hit those high screams) and the rest of the band are tight as anything–in the solos, the jams and everything.

After the first two songs, we got a fantastic version of “Evil Urges” and then “Evelyn is Not Real,” the first of three songs from The Tennessee Fire album (one of their earlier discs I don’t own).  And that started a rather mellow section of songs.  The band sounded great but Jay and I both expected an uptempo number to follow and bring things back up.  “Thin Line” is a great new song, but is also pretty chill and so was “They Ran” also from Tennessee.

Mind you, hearing a beautiful acoustic version of “Hillside Song” was pretty awesome.

They played “Death is the Easy Way” from At Dawn (the first time since Aug 2012), a mellow song from the other early album I don’t own.  And then the third song from Tennessee, “I Think I’m Going to Hell.”  This was followed by “Sooner,” a mellow rarity from the Chocolate and Ice EP.  And then back to At Dawn for “The Way That He Sings.”  Great songs, but not very danceable.

They picked up the tempo a bit with the amazing “Aluminum Park” from Evil Urges (it’s hard to complain about a set when they play 4 songs from your favorite album by the band), which was followed by “Master Plan” from It Still Moves (four songs from that album as well).  “Master Plan” is a great slow brooding song, but again, pretty mellow.

Then Jim James came and talked to us.  He thanked us for coming, especially those who came to all four nights (that would have been pretty awesome).  [After the show I talked to a woman, Yvonne (I think), who was from L.A. and came East for all four shows.  She was a die-hard fan, no kidding, and was totally stoked about the show(s)].  Then james brought up what happened in Paris at the Eagles of Death Metal show.  He asked us for a moment of silence and, in what was the eeriest, most beautiful moment of any show I’ve ever seen, the entire sold out crowd at the Beacon granted him what felt like an entire minute of total silence–no coughing, laughing, raucous cheers, nothing.  Just silence.  It was really moving.

And then they played EoDM’s song “I Love You All the Time.”  Eagles Of Death Metal urged other acts to cover “I Love You All The Time” in order to raise funds for victims of the attack (I have no idea how that actually works in terms of fundraising), and the song was great.  They totally nailed it and there’s a bunch of videos online that you can watch of the show.

After coming out of that song they played “Smokin’ from Shootin'” which is a great song that echoed nicely to the previous sentiments.  And the first set ended with a long jamming version of “Steam Engine” (from It Still Moves).  This had a lengthy saxophone solo and then a keyboard solo and as the band left the stage, there was even a drum solo (!).  So it’s funny that Jay and I were both surprised that the set was over–I mean, 16 songs is a big set.

But they were nowhere near done.  And had we known what the band was doing, it would have been easy to guess that they saved some of their biggest, rockingest songs for their final encore. And they certainly brought their A game for the end.

Opening the encore with a great version of “Wordless Chorus” (the only song from Z), the audience went berserk.  Then James played his Omnichord (and hammed it up quite a bit) as the intro to “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Pt. 2,” which segued nicely into the rocking jam “Cobra” (a song I don’t know, but which I will have to look for).

And this led to the two big songs that fans were waiting for (and we were super lucky to get them).  A scorching super long version of “Run Thru” and an amazing jam filled version of “One Big Holiday.”  Even though the previous show that I attended ended with that song, it never disappoints live and was just amazing.

The entire encore was filled with great soloing moments–Jim James on his flying V, doing a proper jam face off pose (above) with Carl Broemel (who is really amazing, and plays the crowd as well as he plays guitar (and sax, and slide guitar), like the way he held the resumption of “Run Thru” an extra long time teasing us with anticipation).  A special mention of bassist Two-Tone Tommy who keeps the groove all the way through (and gets a few moments of very cool fast lines like in “Run Thru”).

During the last show I wasn’t quite as aware of keyboardist Bo Koster, but from the seats that we had this time (lower balcony second row–a perfect view), I could really see how much he was doing.  And of course, Patrick Hallahan is a wild man on the drums.  I tried to get some pictures of him in motion but simply couldn’t.  But he was a lot of fun to watch.

So even though the set felt a bit too mellow and I was bummed for not hearing more of the big songs (had I known what was going on I wouldn’t have expected them), the encore was tremendous.  And a two and a half hour set of great music is fantastic.

I also learned something new after the set.  Although I think of myself as fairly worldly, I am highly ignorant of many things.  Since our train wasn’t scheduled to leave for 90 minutes, we hung around late and wasted time.  And that’s when I saw people selling balloons.  I was genuinely puzzled as to why people were selling balloons after a show.  I even had the brief though that my kids would enjoy one (since they were pretty psychedelic).  Then I learned why exactly they were selling them.  Naive much?

It has been ages since I’ve been up late in the middle of the City.  A midnight subway ride was cool and the train ride home at 1:19 was surprisingly crowded.

All in all, it was great, exhausting night and I was super glad to share it with Jay (who also says he has to see them again next time they come around).

I would absolutely see them again next time they come around, although I’d again hope for a few bigger songs.  Of course everyone I talked to said that some day I ‘d wish I was more prepared for this show, because it was pretty spectacular.

November 28, 2015–Beacon	July 25, 2015–Camden
Victory Dance [Circ]	Off the Record [Z]
Compound Fracture [Water]	Compound Fracture [Water]
Evil Urges [EU]	Wordless Chorus [Z]
Evelyn is Not Real [Tenn]	Evil Urges [EU]
Thin Line [Water]	In Its Infancy (The Waterfall) [Water]
They Ran [Tenn]	Master Plan [Moves]
Hillside Song [Water]	Lay Low [Z]
Death is the Easy Way [Dawn]	Spring (Among the Living) [Water]
I Think I’m Going to Hell [Tenn]	Dondante [Z]
Sooner [Choc EP]	Tropics (Erase Traces) [Water]
The Way That He Sings [Dawn]	Thin Line [Water]
Aluminum Park [EU]	Circuital [Circ]
Master Plan [Moves]	Phone Went West
I Love You All the Time [EoDM cover]	Mahgeetah [Moves]
Smokin’ from Shootin’ [EU]	encore
Steam Engine [Moves]	Believe (Nobody Knows) [Water]
encore	Victory Dance [Circ]
Wordless Chorus [Z]	Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Pt. 2 [EU]
Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Pt. 2 [EU]	One Big Holiday [Moves]
Cobra [Choc EP]
Run Thru [Moves]
One Big Holiday [Moves]