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Archive for the ‘My Morning Jacket’ Category

My Morning Jacket (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 11, 2025, Night 2 of 2)

Posted in Balthvs, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 11, 2025] My Morning Jacket

After such a great night last night, we wound up leaving a little bit later (figuring there was no Friday night traffic) and arrived a few minutes later than last night.  But when I walked up to the merch line there was literally one person in front of me–moments later when I looked again, the line was huge, going up the stairs.  Then we headed down to the pit.  It was a little more crowded than last night.  We were going to try to get in front of Jim, but that’s what everyone else wanted, too.  So we camped out more or less where we were the night before, in front of Carl.  We were two people back from where we were, which isn’t bad at all.

So yes, last night as pretty tiring and we’d had a busy day, but we were psyched for a second night of My Morning Jacket.  And I was super psyched when they opened with Highly Suspicious, a totally ripping song from Evil Urges and one that I’d forgotten about–it was also the first time I’d seen it live.  This was also when I learned that Carl Broemel can do so many great backing voices (including the deep, angry chanting of “highly suspicious”).  They followed it with Off the Record, one of the poppier songs off of Z.

Then Carl Broemel moved over to the pedal steel guitar and they played the short but fun Climbing the Ladder.   It was interesting that last night Carl played the saxophone on a few songs but didn’t play it at all tonight. And last night he didn’t play the pedal steel at all but he played it about three times tonight.

And it was pretty clear that if last night’s show was all about jamming, tonight show was shorter, more rocking songs.  And the guys in the front who were headbanging last night had much more cause to do so tonight.

Speaking of the pit.  Tonight’s crowd was fascinating.  There was a guy who kept walking around the pit area hugging and fist bumping people.  He switched places with people and let other be on the barrier.  In fact, one of the long-haired headbangers let some of the shorter folks switch places with him for a song or two.  It was an incredibly generous and, dare I say it, loving thing to do.  Appropriate for the next song Love Love Love, the only song they played from their previous self-titled album.  The lighting at the shows was fairly simply but effective.  They had five panels mounted behind them.  All of the panels had lights that moved and spun and changed colors. But during Love Love Love, they spelled out Love! which was pretty nice.

Up next was Wordless Chorus, one of the great MMJ songs.  The crowd went nuts and we all sang the wordless chorus over and over as Jim walked around the stage, coming over by us at last. (more…)

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My Morning Jacket (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 10, 2025, Night 1 of 2)

Posted in Balthvs, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 10, 2025] My Morning Jacket

A couple of years ago we saw My Morning Jacket at the Met.  They played two nights in a row but we only went to one.  I’m not going to say the second night was better, but they played a lot of great songs that second night as well.  So when they announced two nights again, I grabbed GA tickets (to finally get up close to the band) for both nights.

We greatly enjoyed Balthvs and the fact that we were one person away from the barrier for most of the show.

The lights dimmed and the band came out and they were off, playing Steam Engine.  The song is 7 minutes on record and they stretched that thing out with some lengthy soloing and jamming.  It went over 15 minutes and the band sounded in great form.

I had thought that they might play all of Z (since they have been touring the album), but they didn’t (which is fine).  For this show they played three songs off of it.  One of them was It Beats 4U which, amazingly, I had not seen live before.

When we saw them last time, they didn’t play anything from The Waterfall.  Tonight they played two songs, the delightful In Its Infancy and, later on, Spring (Among the Living).

My two favorite MMJ albums are Evil Urges and Circuital, so I’m always excited to hear songs from them.  They played Circuital, which made me quite happy.  I don’t really know their first few records all that well–they’re a little too slow and not very catchy.  But the crowd seems to love when they play a deep cut like X-Mas Curtain (this is one of their older songs that I really do like, so I enjoyed hearing it).

Speaking of the crowd… we were in the pit and most of the people around us were VIP purchasers and other die-hards.  The guys in the front on the barrier all had long hair and proceeded to headbang through the whole show.  It was pretty funny and they made the front of MMJ’s Instagram page the following day.

And we were right in from of Carl Broemel and it was amazing watching him do…everything.  He played amazing solos, he played saxophone, he even sang fantastic backing vocals.  But it was so cool when he stepped up to the edge of the stage, about 6 feet from us and just wailed on that guitar.  (more…)

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Balthvs (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 10, 2025, Night 1 of 2) [MY MORNING JACKET]

Posted in Balthvs, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 10, 2025] Balthvs

A couple of years ago we saw My Morning Jacket at the Met.  They played two nights in a row but we only went to one.  I’m not going to say the second night was better, but they played a lot of great songs that second night as well.  So when they announced two nights again, I grabbed GA tickets (to finally get up close to the band).

For both nights, the opener was BALTHVS, a band I didn’t know.

They are from Colombia and when I first heard a song, I lazily said they reminded me of Khruangbin.  I see that online people compare them to Khruangbin a lot, which seems to be unfair.  I don’t know Khruangbin all that well, but both bands have a similar vibe.  However, on further listen, BALTHVS has got its own thing down quite well.  But it’s fair to say they’re in the same general area of “World psychedelic funk.”

BALTHVS is a trio from Bogotá Colombia.  Balthazar Aguirre plays guitar and sings, Vanessa Muñoz a plays 5 string bass and sings and Santiago Lizcano plays drums.  The band came out and jumped into some amazing songs.  [Founding bassist Johanna Mercurian recently had a baby and obviously didn’t tour this time]

Year of the Snake is a cool slinky instrumental and it really showed off Balthazar’s guitar chops.  I also loved that Vanessa’s bass was complex–making great use of the five string.  And Santiago was a beast behind the kit. (more…)

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My Morning Jacket / Madi Diaz (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 28, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Madi Diaz, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 28, 2023] My Morning Jacket / Madi Diaz

I saw My Morning Jacket twice in 2015.  I’ve been wanting to see them again ever since but things always seemed to come up when they were nearby.

They played the Mann Center in 2021 but I didn’t feel like going there (that was probably a mistake).

When they announced this tour, I was psyched.  Two nights!  Then I saw that it was the same weekend as parents’ weekend at my son’s school.  Oof.

So we couldn’t go Saturday night as that was the big night of the weekend.  But Friday night looked like it was geared more toward alumni, so we were given permission to go the Friday show and to blow off this show. (more…)

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My Morning Jacket (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 27, 2023)

Posted in Madi Diaz, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 27, 2023] My Morning Jacket

When I told my son that we were going to see My Morning Jacket he said, “you’ve seen them a lot.”  And I kind of think that too.  But this was only our third time seeing them and the last two times were in 2015.

This tour was sort of announced as a twenty year anniversary tour of their album It Still Moves.  They were playing the album–but not at all locations.

And not at our location.  MMJ were playing two nights at the Met.  Ideally we would have gone to both.  But both nights were scheduled for the weekend of my son’s college Homecoming weekend, so we didn’t think we’d go to either.  But he was cool with us not visiting him on Friday so I grabbed tickets for this show.

Of course, seeing the setlists from both nights, I would have preferred the second night, but only slightly and only because they played a song that I really wanted to hear (“Wordless Chorus”) and that my wife really wanted to hear (“One Big Holiday”).

However, both nights were a fascinating mix of fan favorites and deep cuts.  So on our night I got to hear a couple other favorite songs, too.  So no complaints about our night at all.   Well, actually a couple of complaints about the losers who shared the box with us and who talked a lot through the show and who almost got into a fight at one point.  VIP indeed. (more…)

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Madi Diaz (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 27, 2023) [MY MORNING JACKET]

Posted in Madi Diaz, My Morning Jacket, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on October 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 27, 2023] Madi Diaz

Madi Diaz was on my list of artists to see live.  Although I couldn’t remember why exactly.  She’s opened for a few shows that I hadn’t gotten the chance to see yet, so I was excited to see her for this one.

This show turned out to be kind of weird for us for a number of reasons.  The first was that we arrived stupidly early.  For various reasons we left earlier than anticipated and there was no traffic on a Friday night (what?) so we had so much time to kill.  We thought about going for food, but we changed out minds.  And it’s good we did because on the way to The Met we noticed that there was a VIP entrance for box seats.

I happened to buy box seats for this show because they were cheaper than the resale GA tickets.  I also assumed that all MMJ tickets would be very expensive, although I later saw that there were some pretty cheap tickets left.  But I hate the back area of the Met, so I was happy to get these box seats.  So it turned out that the box seats are super swank.  You have a private (for about 14 boxes each with about 12 seats in them) bar and bathroom.  Dang.  As well as lots of room and, in our case, high chairs that allowed us to see over the people in front of our box (how psyched were we that the people in the front row didn’t stand, and we could sit for the whole show–normally not my thing, but I was pretty tired).

We could also move our chairs around which was nice.  Not as nice is that the people in our box were obnoxious.   I don’t know what t heir deal was but they talked and talked and talked.  I realize that it didn’t upset Madi Diaz at all, but it sucked to have her songs ruined by idiots talking.

Diaz came out on stage and for whatever reason she looked REALLY tall to me.  I never really got past what had to have been a trick of the light.  She played a song solo with acoustic guitar (“Man in Me”) and she had a lovely voice.

And then she brought out a drummer.  I didn’t catch his name and I can’t find it online, but holy cow did the addition of drums make these songs intense and magnificent.

Diaz switched between loud guitars and acoustic ones and the drums punctuated them perfectly.  Her voice was familiar (I wanted to say Phoebe Bridgers at her more powerful, but I’m not quite sure that’s right) and she had a great range.  On a couple of songs she raged and hit some great high notes.

I felt a little distanced from the show being in this weird box seat, so I’m not sure i fully appreciated Diaz’ set.  But she’s a powerhouse with some intense lyrics.

  1. Man in Me
  2. Woman in My Heart
  3. Everything Almost
  4. New Person, Old Place
  5. Do It Now
  6. Obsessive Thoughts
  7. Don’t Do Me Good
  8. Get to Know Me
  9. Think of Me
  10. Same Risk

 

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Newport Folk Festival (Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI, July 29-July 31, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Bartees Strange, Billy Strings, Goose, Indigo De Souza, Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, Jon Batiste, Lana Del Ray, Madison Cunningham, Maggie Rogers, Mdou Moctar, My Morning Jacket, Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI on July 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: July 31-August 2, 2020] Newport Folk Festival

We went to Newport Folk Festival in 2019.  We’ve had a kind of understanding that we would try to go again.  So this year, when tickets were announced I jumped online and managed to score four of them!

Then it turned out that the weekend would be  massive conflict.

So, after seeing just who would be there, we felt that the whole fest was kind of a big shrug.  And it would be no loss to sell the tickets back.  Fortunately, Newport has a great system where you just put the tickets back in the pool and who ever is next gets them. (more…)

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Akhil Sharma–“Surrounded by Sleep” (New Yorker, December 10, 2001)

Posted in Akhil Sharma, Beck, George Harrison, José González, Led Zeppelin, Leonard Cohen, Marco Benevento, My Morning Jacket, New Yorker, Parenting, Religion, Short Story, The Knife, Violence on March 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MARCO BENEVENTO-Me Not Me (2009).

This album (Benevento’s second) with the confusing title is actually a (mostly) covers album.  Marco takes some familiar (to me) and some unfamiliar (to me) songs and turns them into instrumental versions using piano (and more), bass (from Reed Mathis) and drums.

The first song is My Morning Jacket’s “Golden.”  The melody is instantly recognizable and bouncy and fun.  Matt Chamberlain provides drums, which are skittery and complicated but never loud. Until the end when the songs starts to float away with trippy synths and some wild drumming.

“Now They’re Writing Music” is an original piece that switches between synth and piano and features Chamberlain and Andrew Barr on drums.

“Seems So Long Ago, Nancy” is a Leonard Cohen song.  It’s produced as if it’s on an old scratchy record with echoing bass and drums over the scratchy piano.  Barr is on drums.

“Mephisto” is an original, a slow jazzy number with a hummable melody and Chamberlain on drums.

“Twin Killers” is a Deerhoof song.  Appropriately, it has some riotous drums (from Barr who is on the next two songs as well).  It’s longer than the original because it features a cacophonies middle section that is just insane.  But Benevento’s faithful reproduction of the melody line makes this really catchy.

“Call Home” is a pretty lullaby.  It’s an original with soft keys and a baby cooing.

“Heartbeats” is the Jose Gonzales/The Knife song.  The main low riff sounds like its on the bass and then Marco plays the familiar lead melody with all kinds of fuzz thrown over the song.

“Sing It Again” is a mellow song from Beck off of Mutations.  I don’t really know it that well but this version is very pretty and simple.

A highlight of the album is this really fun version of Led Zeppelin’s “Friends.”  It’s immediately recognizable and yet different somehow.  Its full of raucous paying from all three especially when Benevento ads the sinister synths near the end.  Chamberlain plays up a storm on the drums.

The final song is George Harrison’s “Run of the Mill.”  I don’t know the original, but this is a jazzy song with lot of piano runs from Marco and some restrained drumming from Chamberlain.

This is a pretty solid introduction to Benevento’s music, although his albums definitely get better once he starts writing his own songs with words.

[READ: March 14, 2021] “Surrounded by Sleep”

Ajay was ten years old.  His family lived in Queens (having moved from India two years earlier).  He and his older brother, Amam, were in Virginia visiting his aunt and uncle.  One morning Aman was swimming in the pool.  He dove in and hit his head on the cement bottom.  He was on the bottom of the pool for several minutes before anyone noticed.

His parents were not terribly religious, but as Amar lay in a coma in the hospital, his mother began to pray regularly.  She also prostrated herself and fasted.

At first Ajay thought “her attempts to sway God were not so different from Ajay’s performing somersaults to amuse his aunt.”  Then Ajay knelt before the altar and drew in the carpet an Om, a crucifix, a Star of David and the Superman logo.

When his mother saw him praying, she asked what he prayed for.  He told her for a 100 on his math test. His mother said “What if God said you can have he math grade but then Aman will have to be sick a little while longer? …   When I was sick as a girl, your Uncle walked seven times around the temple and asked God to let him fail his exams just as long as I got better.”

Ajay replied, quite rightly, “If I failed the math test and told you that story you’d slap me and ask what one has to do with the other.” (more…)

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Illiterate Light (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 8, 2019) [THE HEAD AND THE HEART]

Posted in Geddy Lee, Illiterate Light, My Morning Jacket, Neil Young, Newport Folk Festival, Philadelphia, PA, Promise of the Real, Rock duo, The Head and the Heart, The Met Philadelphia on October 8, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 8, 2019] Illiterate Light

I had heard of Illiterate Light from NPR, but didn’t really know them.  They played at Newport Folk Festival but were early on Saturday and we arrived after them.

Traffic getting to this show was terrible and I was annoyed that we’d miss Illiterate Light (or part of their set anyhow).  S. said she didn’t mind missing the opening act as long as we made it for The Head and the Heart.

We walked in just as Illiterate Light took the stage and we got seated around the middle of the first song.  And I couldn’t get over how loud they were (particularly opening for a not-especially-loud band like The Head and the Heart).  They had big rocking guitar and crashing drums.

Then I looked up and realized that there were only two of them on stage. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #6 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Colombia, Death, Egyptology, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Hospitals, Jim James, Math, Monkeys, Murder, My Morning Jacket, Parenting, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series, Violence on August 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Children of the Moon” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

Lately, Jim James has been going in a more mellow direction after the pretty heavy psychedelia of Circuital in 2011.  But this song stays in that heavy psychedelic vein with a big distorted guitar riff and distorted vocals from James (and Coyne, I assume).

It’s that weird mix of creepy and catchy that the Lips do so well.  You can clearly hear James on the lead vocals, but who knows who is contributing vocals to the rest (the oh oh ohs).  The guitar solo is all distorted and reversed–a noisy explosion of sound.

This song is barely four minutes and it’s followed by another noisy short one before the album segues back into quieter terrain.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #6

Katchoo was given coordinates to meet Stephanie.  The coordinates put her way off the grid in Colombia.  As she waits, a guy on a moped drives up and a monkey hops off and delivers a package (that’s pretty adorable, honestly).

Katchoo can only assume things are bad since Stephanie didn’t show.  She can’t imagine what is in the satchel (she hopes it’s not Francine’s head).

But no, it is a tube and in the tube is an ancient piece of papyrus–Cleopatra’s mathematical ideas. (more…)

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