3/20/02 Tampa show remembered

[George_Savage]

My Morning Jacket - New World Brewery - Tampa, Florida
March 20, 2002

Tampa, revisited once again (3/20/02)

                   Riny suggested that I use Word before sending a long one.   That way maybe I don't lose it.    To have typed so much BS for so long (probably 35 or 40 minutes) about my fond remembrances from four years ago, only to see them disappear into the world of aborted cyberspace...well let's just say that it was disheartening.   So while I am here at work today I might try to revisit them once again.  
                    I had awakened bright and early in Gainesville, and I went down a state highway until I hit the interstate.  Tampa was only two or three hours away.   At my age, and considering how much I had partied the night before, I was hoping for a long nap to refuel my MMJ-loving vigor.   I wanted to find the place before going down there at night.   So I went down there in the early afternoon.  This was in the tourist area known as Ybor City; I think this is originally where Tampa got its start.  I believe it was the Spaniards that settled this area, probably in the 1750s?   There were a bunch of tourist stops here: gift shops, a cinema, coffee shops, art galleries.  I ended up grabbing some coffee and I asked these passersby if they new where the New World Brewery was.   These girls asked who was playing (they had heard of it but weren't exactly sure of its location) and I promptly told them "My Morning Jacket"   They said that they'd never heard of 'em.
I said something like "Believe me...you will!"
           This place ended up being a few blocks North of where I was.   The
inside was under construction but I finally found someone that knew when the
show would start.   I ended up going back to the motel room but not before
buying some shaving cream.  Razor Went Dead, and I had to buy some disposable
razors at a nearby drug store.   I always equated that shaving cream with By My
Car because I would hear it later that night live for the first time.   And it
was Awesome.
           I also ended up getting a glorious nap before the show.  I woke up to
that Seinfeld episode where George and Jerry break into the apartment of
George's ex-girlfriend to retrieve an answering machine tape.   That was an
early one, I think, and classic.
           I tried to call this dude named Kevin that I had traded tapes with
over on Postcard, the Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt list.  I got his answering
machine and left a message.   I had told Postcard about this trip and I was
trying to meet some of 'em at these sublime musical shindigs.   I got a haircut
before the show and ate something at KFC.   I went back down into Tampa; I was
probably six to eight miles North of town.  I remember getting totally fired up
when I saw the bright lights, big city; soon I was there in the parking lot of
the New World Brewery.  Lo and behold, as I was getting out I spotted Jim.  He was heading out to check some email or something and he said "Holler at the guys, I think they're inside"   I don't remember how it happened, but all four of the other Nice Jackets hung out with me by my car for about 10-15 minutes.  It was here that I started the interviewing (informal) process.   I think I asked them when they played their first show, etc.  I can't help but figure that they must've thought more than once what Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid wondered:  "Who *is* this guy!?"  Alas, as Wilco sang in The Lonely 1, "I'm just a fan...I'm just a fan"  
       After awhile, I saw that Jim was out at a table selling merchandise.  I proceeded to bother him here; I made an allusion to all of those requests I'd written down in New Orleans two nights before and he said that they'd try to do some more of them.   I asked him about the possibility of hearing Weeks Go By Like Days on this tour and he said that they'd have to relearn it.   Another one that I asked for was If It Smashes Down.   He said that he'd need the banjo for that one.
       A local band started off; I can't remember their name.  They were pretty good.  Then Swearing at Motorists came out and rocked it out.  Their albums were more fleshed out than their rock shows. I liked them quite a lot, and Dave was hilarious.  He said a lot of funny stuff and got the crowd involved by imploring them to "come on down here to the front where the rock is happenin'", stuff like that.  
        It was during this time that I met a gal through Chris "KC" Guetig.  I guess he'd told her that I was taping but somehow she thought that I was in one of the bands.   I just laughed about that.  I ended up trying to help her record.  She was used to recording off the board but they weren't allowing that and it wouldn't have sounded very good, anyway.   I ended up dropping my spare MD (my old one) recorder and her MD was helplessly trapped inside it.  I don't think that her recording ever saw the light of day.   This place was fairly crowded, especially for a Wednesday night.   I did end up meeting that friend from Postcard named Kevin.  He knew that gal that I tried to help with her recording.  I think that both of them worked part-time for a radio station.
          Jim emerged wearing the blue 'robe' that he'd sported five days earlier in Denton, Texas. They were playing outside at one end of a little patio.  The crowd was right in front of them but also out towards the street sitting at tables and standing around.  I would guess that there were probably 200 people there.   I was standing at the back and I was almost right up against the wall.  Unfortunately, the recording sucks for the first two songs.   I ended up wising up and heading out towards the center.
            As I was walking through the crowd at the beginning of the third time you can hear a lot of talking.  I was on the outside area as I tried to get back into the center of the room.  It was probably 30 seconds into the song before I realized "Shit, this is By My Car!"   It was the first time I'd ever heard it live and it was sublime.   Here

is the setlist:  One Big Holiday
The Way that He Sings
By My Car
The Dark
Lowdown
Honest Man
Just Because I Do
War Begun
Phone Went West
Tyrone (Jim solo)
Bermuda Highway (Jim solo)
I Will Be There When You Die (Jim solo)
Lil Billy
            It was a rocker, no doubt.  It was the longest show of these six that I saw in seven nights.   William Bowers and his girlfriend Natalie were down from Gainesville; I recognized them from the night before and I gave them my email address and promised to send them the show.   I learned later that she'd lost it but she found me over on the yahoogroups list.  
         Jim's talent for ridiculous comedy surfaced again when he introduced Honest Man as "this next song is one off our 1987 debut album Biblical Prophecies" – you can hear this gal cheer after and and then I laughed.  It was the first time I'd heard Honest Man, too.  I can only find Disc One of this show at the moment.  Radar watches me from above shouting down "I hope you make it on this Earth" and then just a kickass rock and roll jam.  I think that the version from 7/16/02 sounds slightly better and it's about three minutes longer.  
         It was during this show that I had a theory about the ending part of Bermuda Highway.  You know that beautiful part at the end when he's singing "ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah" – I envisioned that this was so beautiful that it must be what you will hear after you die and you are ascending to Heaven.   This gorgeous melody will be sung by 10,000 angels; that's my theory, I guess I'll find out if I'm right upon my death!
         Jim did these three solo songs because we kept hollering for him to come back.  Then they all came back for a rockin' rendition of Lil Billy.  It
was awesome.  We thanked the band afterwards and headed out.  I learned that Swearing at Motorists had stayed at the same motel as me the next night in Atlanta.  They couldn't resist the low rates even though it was a few miles from where they were played.  One for the ages, for sure.  If/when I find the rest of the show, I'll offer it up here, but I wouldn't call it a stellar recording by any means.  Thanks again to the Nice Jackets for putting up with me!
Low Dog
"don't let your silly dreams fall in between the crack of the bed and the wall"

[BH]

At this point in time George, were you basically the only one in the room who even heard an MMJ song before or were there other "fans"?  Just trying to get a read on the atmosphere.

[George_Savage]

At this point in time George, were you basically the only one in the room who even heard an MMJ song before or were there other "fans"?  Just trying to get a read on the atmosphere.

           No, not at all!  There were probably 150-200 people at the first show I saw (Austin, TX) that were there for MMJ.  They were already a big draw by the time I'd ever heard of them.

Low Dog