My Morning Jacket

[RP]

I am going to the Tuesday show next week. I know there are some MMJ fans out there. Who else is going?

[Vachelle]

I had to laugh this weekend when my 8 year old niece asked me quite
seriously, "How many concerts do you go to in a year?"

She was looking for a response in the two hundred to two thousand range
and while a few years ago I could have probably met her expectations,
these days (excluding festivals) it's probably closer to 100-150.

Why post this here? For the life of me, I can not understand why I am
so excited to hear/see My Morning Jacket. With all the bands that I do
see, the level of anticipation is, well, there is is no real level of
anticipation. =) Monday and Tuesday nights shows are completely
different.

I am excited to hear this band and I'm sorry that it sold out before I
could convince my friends that they would love this band.

So, anyway, I'll be at both shows unless the cigarette smoke gets to me
tomorrow night.

The band got a little press in the Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/23/AR2006112300557.html

[RP]

For those heading out to the My Morning Jacket show tonight, just call my cell: 202-536-7037.

--
Burl says, "Curses!"

[Vachelle]

So, it's taken me a couple of days to come down from my first Jacket
experience. Someone on the MMJ board summed up this band this way:
"baptized by reverb". That's as close as I think I'll get to
describing my experience.

The band plays with an elaborate light show, but they keep themselves
in the shadows on stage. 5 guys, a lot of hair (though less than is on
the Okonokos DVD), a lot of head bobbing/banging, but otherwise,
there's not much to look at. This is a good thing.

I've been struggling to find the right words to describe their music to
my friends who rightly think I'm obsessed with this band. When I
finally gave up snoozing this morning and turned on the television, I
saw a commercial for shirts. Men's shirts. The shirts are doused with
wine or some other purplely looking liquid and the stains are repelled.
The music in the background is from an opera. The voices were
tremendous and sang with an urgency and a bit of fright. These are
hi-quality shirts that are in harm's way. The voices sing in a
language that I don't understand, but the emotion was clear. And then
it hit me, MMJ are like this commercial-opera for me. Jim James sings
words that I usually can not decipher, the music is broad and sweeping
and uplifting and screaming and crying and laughing...and in the end no
one is harmed.

I would be dishonest if I said that either of the 2 shows at the 9:30
Club blew me away. They didn't. The sound Monday was muddy and the
setlist Tuesday was great, but included too many of the same songs for
my tastes. DC crowds just don't do it for me. While attentive, I
still have not adjusted to the stand still and stare vibe. So, I
wasn't blown away, I was certainly carried away.

I went in both days with a head ache that I've had for the last several
days and a back that was ravaged by repeatedly lifting and tossing a
2-year old over the holidays. Tuesday more so than Monday, I found
myself with eyes closed (with the stage being dark and all), bopping up
and down or doing my own mini-version of head-banging. By the time
they got to Run Thru, my baptism was in full swing. Arms waving, feet
inches off the ground, I was definitely somewhere else, but physically
I was in the 9:30 Club, where much to my surprise, the people around me
were also "getting it". We held hands. We jumped. We screamed along
with Jim James. I think someone near the front of the room was in
tears. "I Think I'm Going to Hell" was a hi-light for me. Slow,
deliberate, dark, and waltzy, this song just tears my heart in half.
Your mileage may vary. I was most impressed with Lay Low. It's huge.
That's all that I can really say about it. They played it both nights
and I was thrilled to hear it twice.

This is not a band that I should like - 2 guitars is usually a bad
thing for me because the bass can get overshadowed. Not so with MMJ.
Beneath (and sometimes on top of) all of the layered guitar work is a
groove that you can dance to. James' voice - that falsetto - is
other-worldly-eerily beautiful. The drumming is powerful. The keys,
for me, could be a little more pronounced on most of the songs, but for
the most part they accent the music perfectly. Their live shows aren't
100% live. They use some recorded loops, but not in a gimmicky or
distracting way. Carl Broemel is as important to this band as guitar
strings are to guitars. He's the "other" guitarist and is masterful.
The result is a wonderfully full sound that can exhaust you emotionally
and/or physically if you let it.

Don't let the long-hair fool you, these guys aren't a metal band.
They're slagged by folks who don't like jam bands as being "too jammy",
but that's not really accurate either. They play some country-sounding
tunes, but they're not country either. They even toss in some reggae
back beats and these guys surely aren't a reggae band. I don't know
where to categorize this band. They're good. Damn good--is that a
category yet? If you haven't heard them, check out their website.
They've got a bunch of archived radio shows available.

Rick...did you make it to the show?

[RP]

Thanks for the recap! I got called back to work late on Tuesday, illustrating yet again how hard it is for me to get out on weeknights. It was a humiliating evening and although i could have made it to the 9:30 Club by 10~10:30, I was too worn down to make the effort, especially considering I had an 8am meeting the next day. I'll catch them next time!

--
Burl says, "Curses!"

[Vachelle]

Sounds dreadful...sorry. I'll loan you my copy of Okonokos. =)

Here's link to a review of their show last night in NYC. I am already
kicking myself for not going to Philly tonight...:

Re: [nyc-freaks] MMJ last night

Sick show, my first time and I thought it was unbelievable. What a
great rock
show, the definiteion of a rock show. The hype around these guys is
enormous,
and yet they totally surpassed even with wildest expectations I had.

Some pics and vids:
http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/?p=124