3/21/02 Atlanta show remembered....

[George_Savage]

My Morning Jacket - The Earl - Atlanta, Georgia
March 21, 2002

       I had slept well but probably not long enough that night after the Tampa show.   I had a long drive to Atlanta, so I got up pretty early.  The drive was uneventful.   I had directions to the venue but Atlanta is a big place.   I tend to get lost at least once when I visit cities.    I listened to a bunch of MMJ in the car on the way along with the usual suspects:  DBT, Slobberbone, Neil Young, Belle and Sebastian, and other various and sundry acts.  Actually, I don't specifically remember listening to any of these, but they're probably good bets!   At one point near Atlanta I decided to turn on the radio and I found a National Public Radio station.
       I'm not a big U2 fan but I like Joshua Tree; it doesn't hurt that I love Gram and Joshua Tree is always associated with Gram.   The album's good, too.   It's my favorite U2 album but I haven't heard it in years.  Anyway, NPR was doing a story on Bono's efforts to help third world countries.  He had petitioned President Bush and Prime Minister Blair and various other leaders for help with the major problems in Africa.  I guess they asked how he'd managed to arrange to meet with them, and he said something like "basically, I was a *pest* - I pestered them until they agreed to speak with me"
  This got me to thinking about this current trip; a nearly 40-year-old man following around this band of badass musicians and basically pestering them for a week at their shows!   I thought of myself as a pest in a way.   I could've easily left them alone, but I guess I felt "no punches thrown, no restraining orders issued", so why not?   As Dustin Hoffman's character said in The Graduate about the professors whose classes he was sitting in on, though not enrolled: "They've been very cordial about it"
         Somehow this morphed into (in an obvious nod to Phone Went West) Pest Went East, which probably was figured out during a day of hard partying.  "I went insane like a smoke-ring day when the wind blew" –Neil Young, 'on the way home', '68   Or maybe it came about later, but this tour became known in my own red-eyed mind as the Pest Went East tour based on that Bono story on NPR.    There have been three other Pest Went East 'tours', but none with as many shows in as many nights that I was able to attend.   You have to remember that at this point they were still only drawing anywhere from two (in an extreme case, New Orleans on March 18) to 250 fans.   Or maybe it was just the venues that allowed such a small number.   But even later in the year in Birmingham there were only 40-50 fans in attendance.  Obviously this was pre-Conan!  
              I ended up finding the place.   I got a motel before the show and I paid more than I wanted to pay but it was close by.  A cold front had blown in that day and it was colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra.   By the time the show started it was downright brutal outside.   I ended up getting a huge coffee at McDonald's and I spotted them inside before the show started.  I ended up talking with Johnny mostly here; it was probably his 'turn' to attempt to entertain the Dog!?!?   Anyway, he was nice to  me and he told me that he had started out on cello and/or piano.  There were a local singer to kick it off and then Swearing at Motorists came out.   Dave said something like "I'm glad to get out of Florida.   I haven't ever seen so many  orange construction barrels and cops as I have over the last two days!"   They put on a good show and their albums are really quite good.  
     A dude named Jon Ouzts was going to the show and he was a member of Postcard.  He says that he found me when he spotted the mikes hanging on my glasses; his friend told him 'that's probably the guy' and sure enough, it was me.   A nice guy and a major music freak.   They came out and rocked this joint.  The sound wasn't very good, there were problems all night long.   And the sound guy was a bit of a jerk, too.   I remember that Jim asked for some adjustments to be made after the first song or two.   After two or three requests, this guy sarcastically said over the PA, "Okay, so you just want *everything* turned up, huh?"  Jim wasn't a smartass about it, but I'd bet that he was tempted to say something back.  
                   They played probably 50 to 55 minutes and then Jim finished it off with five songs, six if you count his introduction to At Dawn:  the chorus of John Prine's 'Spanish Pipedream'.  So you hear the beginning strums of what you think is At Dawn and then he sings:  "Blow up your TV, throw away your paper, move to the country and build you a home.   Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches, try to find Jesus on your own" and then he strums a couple more notes and then that awesome explosion of blessed vocal talent singing "At dawn they ride again..."   Jim really gave us our moneys' worth on this night.   He played for another 24 minutes after the band exited.   Here is the setlist:

One Big Holiday
The Way that He Sings
Hearbreakin Man
The Dark
Lowdown
War Begun
I Will Sing You Songs
Just Because I Do
Phone Went West
Spanish Pipedream (chorus) (Jim solo 'til the end)
At Dawn
Bermuda Highway
Tyrone
Death is the Easy Way
The Bear
            
               It marked the first time that I had heard I Will Sing You Songs and Death is the Easy Way in a live setting.   I don't know that he'd played Spanish Pipedream live before or since!  
                Note: this will be the *third* time that I have concluded this story.  Both of the first two times this stuff's out there in the abyss of cyberspace – once again!   Dumbass Strikes Again!    Lightning Strikes (not once but twice)!   The crowd was down to about 30 people and only God knows why.   Jim really put on a show to close it out.  A guy near me asked him for Rocket Man but he said that he didn't remember it.   I am fairly sure that Tyrone was a request and I am sure that Death is the Easy Way was requested right before he played it.  Some loud people were chattering over by the bar and a guy near me implored them, "Shut your hole!" and it worked.   Talkers just stay home!  But alas, they never do.
          At another point during a break in Tyrone you could hear a gal across the room say "I'm very impressed" to Jim.  Sudden thought: who *was* the meek guy and *why* did he get all the fame?    I wanted By My Car but he played something equally great; they may have been right before 'Death' – either way, it was a good show.   I think that the band was a bit put out with the sound problems but they performed like the professionals that they are.  
          A few of us were mingling around while the band was breaking down their gear.  Tommy came out and chatted with Jon and me for a bit.  I told him "Jim did 'Death is the Easy Way'!" and Tommy kind of nodded and say 'yeh, I heard it' and he seemed equally pleased.   He and Jon laughed at my MD recorder's 'case': it's a single cotton white sock because I lost my original case.  And it's *still* a white sock.  The more things change, folks, the more they stay the same!    
              I had taken a poster off the wall earlier of this night's show and I got 'em all to sign it two nights later in Columbia.  I was motel room bound within a few minutes and out into the freezing air.   Four show down, two to go on the original Pest Went East tour for Ol Lo!    Long live My Morning Jacket, true badasses of rock and roll.

Low Dog

[Dee.]

Amen.  

I tend to get lost at least once when I visit cities.

I tend to get lost anytime I'm 30 minutes or more away from my home.  What can I say?  I'm smooth.  :)