Boston Pops Reports

[LaurieBlue]

http://sabrejet81.livejournal.com/166366.html

Last night I went with Buzz to see My Morning Jacket and the Boston Pops. It was very awesome. When I got there we went to the bar and got drinks. An opening band was playing in the barroom. They were call Jake Brennan & The Confidence men. I only saw three of their songs. I liked the last one the best. I saw someone that I recognized there. It was Amanda Palmer from The Dresden Dolls! I said "Hi" and complemented her on their new album. I THEn went back to my seat and ordered food. The symphony started without My Morning Jacket. They did this Bjork movie score, this song called "Bump" that I forget who composed it, some Elvis Costello score and a Gershwin Piece. It was good but I was waiting for some Jacket. The Jacket came on 15 minutes after intermission. They did about 8-10 songs my 2 favorites were "Gideon" and "Run Thru". They may even sound better with an orchestra than without one. I hope they make a CD with the orchestra.

[LaurieBlue]

http://blog.noegoweb.com/?p=24

  My Morning Jacket & the Pops
Posted on Thursday 22 June 2006

My friend Hannah won $40 tickets to last night's My Morning Jacket show from Newbury Comics. They played with the Boston Pops, and it was amazing. It was my first sit-down concert. When we arrived, the Pops were playing alone, which was nice in itself. Even though I didn't particulary like the pieces they selected, I enjoyed it anyway. There is just something fantastic about the way it was put together and played so perfectly with so many instruments.

Neither of us really knew what to expect with this show, be we were both blown away. My Morning Jacket was good the last time we saw them, but with a full orchestra behind them it was beyond excellence. They played an entirely different type of show, with mostly their softer stuff. Most of the songs they just had the strings suppliment the backup vocals or second guitar, but some of the songs they went all out. The second to last song they played, I forget what its called, was indescribably good. Like jaw-dropping, edge of your seat good.

The set was only an hour, but it was great.

[LaurieBlue]

http://whosdrivingthebus.blogspot.com/2006/06/my-morning-jacket-and-boston-pops.html

Wow! This was easily my favorite concert I have seen this year. Jim James and Keith Lockhart completely out did themselves. MMJ not only melted my face last night but my heart and mind. Hearing Jim sing some of these songs with a full orchestra behind him was just breathe taking. Look for a longer review over the weekend with videos of "At Dawn", "I Will Sing" and "Run Thru".

[LaurieBlue]

http://echo-chamber.blogspot.com/2006/06/for-all-you-symphony-fans.html

For all you Symphony fans...

My Morning Jacket with the Boston Pops Orchestra
Symphony Hall, 6/22/06

The Bottom Line: Some fantastic, borderline transcendent, moments late in the second set but overall a missed opportunity for potential greatness.

The Crowd: A nice mix of old people wearing too much makeup and dated formal wear, combined with lots of 30ish finance guys sporting pink Vineyard Vines ties and navy-blue sportcoats accompanied by their fat-assed, pearl-wearing junior-leaguer girlfriends, capped off with all of the people there specifically to see MMJ duded up in their best hipster jeans and t-shirts. This sea of disparity made for some funny moments throughout the night typified by the ongoing juxtaposition of "Muffy could I trouble you for another splash of Chardonnay" type comments with the "JIM JAMES YOU F*CKING RULE!!!" screams from the devoted.

Set I: The Boston Pops Orchestra began the program with an hour long set of classical / symphonic tunes written by the likes of Bjork, Elvis Costello, and not at all surprisingly, the staple of Pops Orchestras everywhere, Gershwin. Other than the Gershwin tune, which mercifully closed the set, the performance was flat, boring and, in the case of modern composer Christopher Rouse's "Bump," somewhat grating and tedious. If the goal of the Pops (or at least their marketing people) was to be able to strut their best stuff in front of a younger audience hoping to replace the subscriptions of the regulars who had died of old age last season, they missed the mark. Yes most of the MMJ fans probably listen to a little Bjork and some Elvis Costello but that doesn't justify wasting half the show playing their indulgent, middle-of-the-road compositions. It was like watching a golf pro-am; yeah I'm a Bill Murray fan, and he's a pretty good golfer but if you're trying to sell me on the "best" I want either Tiger Woods or Caddyshack, not the mediocre combination of the two. The intermission was a welcome break if only because it put us closer to the main event.

Set II, part 1: A roar of applause greeted the tuxedo clad members of MMJ as they assembled on the totally dark stage to begin the second set. From the first notes of 'At Dawn,' the problems that would dog them for most of the next hour were apparent. Mainly: 1) The bass player was turned completely off yet was laughably playing like it was the encore of a 1967 Who concert in London. I could hear the clicking of his bass strings from where I was sitting but apparently the amplification system bothered to take no notice. 2) The drummer (who was a hulking bear of a man jammed into a tux) was forced to play a tiny electronic drum kit complete with rubber cymbals that made the lamest of canned, sampled noises as they were struck, no matter how earnestly. It was the musical equivalent to the Chris Farley "fat guy in a little coat" routine from 'Tommy Boy' and unfortunately was as funny as it was sad. 3) No-one bothered to re-arrange the music to accommodate the other 80 musicians on stage and a string section, no matter how large or pedigreed, is no match for a rock band, even the turned down, rhythm-section-emasculated version that was on stage last night. For the first six songs (At Dawn, Gideon, I will Sing you Songs, Just One Thing, Golden, The Way that He Sings) the only real highlight was James' vocal performance on 'Gideon' – the rest was a muddled mix of two bands simultaneously playing the same song at half their usual volume – not great.

Set II, part 2: The opening keyboard drone of 'Wordless Chorus' marked a noticeable turning point in the set and the acoustics of Symphony Hall lent a hand as James solidified his status as the the best singer in rock and roll. Think Janis Joplin singing 'Piece of My Heart' - it was that powerful and those genuinely spine tingling moments instantly redeemed the entire show. The momentum continued through 'Steam Engine' as the previously subdued horn section came blazing to life. Even the bassoon player, who had spent most of the night yawning and presumably contemplating more productive uses of his time, got in on the action here with a zest that defied both his advanced age and prior lack of interest. The synergy of the band and the orchestra, complimented by a nice light show, culminated in the set closer 'Lay Low' and had everyone in the place rocking out hard – except for the sprightly conductor, Keith Lockhart, who, despite his best efforts, probably never rocks out hard. The final three songs were a satisfying end to the set and validated the artistic sensibilities of whomever decided to put this collaboration together.

Encore: James returned to the stage by himself to play a pretty ballad called 'Bermuda Highway' on his acoustic guitar. Again, the orchestra, now unencumbered by the rest of the band, provided the perfect accompaniment as they sent the crowd home with a solid backing to James' ever soaring voice. In a final funny moment, one of the percussion players, apparently feeling left out of the encore, provoked the wrath of Lockhart by hitting the huge bass drum during a quiet moment at the end of second verse. He then pointed to the guy standing next to him and mouthed "he did it" to the glaring conductor. The two guys then broke down laughing and could barely contain themselves for the rest of the song. Further proof that, even in an orchestra, drummers are still f*ck ups.

Overall a fun night despite the initial shortcomings, and the last half of the second set more than justified the cost of admission. I'm very excited to check out MMJ in a more traditional setting when they get back on tour this fall; the Pops, not so much...

[LaurieBlue]

http://hip2besquare.blogspot.com/2006/06/mmj-and-boston-pops.html

It's been awhile since I caught some orchestral music. I love seeing a good symphonic piece every now and then. While I was thrown for a loop at first when I heard that the Boston Pops would be playing without My Morning Jacket for the first hour of the night, it ended up being a good strategy on the part of the Pops and My Morning Jacket. One full hour of MMJ and the Pops was enough and well worth it. This wasn't your typical MMJ show where Jim James and Co. throw their locks out over the crowd and blow you away with their distorted reverbed effects. While the reverb sound was still apparent, it was the full backing orchestra that really took front stage. And I didn't really focus in on this aspect until about the second or third song. At first, I said to myself, "MMJ is sounding kind of flat right now". But in reality, it was just the Orchestra drowning them out. You had to focus on the strings, horns and percussions of the orchestra to really appreciate this show. If you went just wanting to hear MMJ rock out their songs off of "Z", then you came seeing the wrong show. There's no question that a straight up MMJ show is more rocking then what we saw on Wednesday night, or Thursday night if that's when you went. But there is also no question that it was well worth the experience.

You really couldn't have picked a better rock group to compose symphonic music over. It worked so well with their sound and Jim's voice sounded down right immaculate inside Symphony Hall.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.synapticblur.com/2006/06/23/my-morning-jacket-w-boston-pops/

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.hubarts.com/weblog/2006/06/pops_jacket_fut.html

Pops, Jacket, future, past

Mmj_2We got to the second night of My Morning Jacket's Symphony Hall collaboration with the Boston Pops on Thursday. While I don't think there were any blindingly brilliant artistic revelations, every moment was enjoyable. And I mean starting from the time we entered to see the cargo-shorts-clad MMJ contingent rocking out to local bands in both lobby bars, while silver-haired season-ticket holders watched from outside the doorways. (Reviews of Wednesday night's show are here and here. Pictures are here.)

Keith Lockhart and co. are trying hard to attract a new crowd with these Pops on the Edge shows - Guster played last year - and the youngsters who came seemed to be trying to play ball, many of them with loose neckties hung over their wrinkled duds as a concession to what they imagined to be the dress code. The oldsters, meanwhile, were more likely to be wearing Polos and khakis as a concession to the heat, although some were still in suits. They stood watching Jake Brennan and the Confidence Men and The Unbusted from a safe distance, either wincing at the guitar noise or smiling bemusedly. Lord knows they needed a G&T or a glass of wine to salve their sensibilities amid the tumult, but they only went to the end of the bar farthest from the band, got their drinks, then edged back out into the corridor. Only one tux-clad fiftyish guy stood watching Brennan from inside, nodding along.

When we took our seats at a table in the hall, we were joined by two twentyish lads who never troubled to so much as look our way, so intense was their focus on the stage. One was a hyper dead ringer for A.J. Soprano, and he came equipped with digital recorder, digital camera, notepad and pen; I think he was some kind of MMJ blogger, to judge by his t-shirt from last weekend's Bonnaroo Festival, where MMJ played, and the fact that he was still wearing his Bonnaroo press wristband four days later, a beloved talisman. Throughout the show, he shot flash pictures (sometimes running to the front of the aisle to do so), whooped, hollared and shot the devil's horns at the stage. Entertaining and annoying at the same time. I hope to find his post sometime today. But it was certainly a different sort of Pops crowd. He wasn't the only one howling and shooting the horns, a gesture that has lost whatever metalhead meaning it once had, now signifying a sort of generalized You rawk, dude! The suit-clad retiree to me left found it all most amusing.

The members of MMJ also made an obvious sartorial concession, suiting up in tails for the occasion, and dressing their stage teddy bear in a tux. But seeing a chubby, hairy guy playing a Flying V electric guitar on the stage of Symphony Hall was still pretty different, regardless of the wardrobe.

Oh, and how was the music? Well, those reviewers got it right. The MMJ performance of "Gideon" on Letterman last week with a dozen Pops players (video here) seemed to have a powerful tension that I never quite felt Thursday night. Still, MMJ's music is intensely atmospheric in a way that resembles the (otherwise very different) Coldplay and Radiohead, and if the matchup with the orchestra never seemed to change the nature of the songs very much, it added color and texture. On several of the dozen or so songs, it was hard to hear the orchestra's contribution until the brass kicked in. It all gelled best at the end, on the roaring "Run Thru." I'm not sure we've come all that far from "Conquistador," though. What was terrific was hearing Jim James' intensely emotional if not exactly conventional voice in the acoustic perfection of Symphony, especially on "Run Thru" and "Bermuda Highway," the show's coda, which found him alone in front of the orchestra.

Watching the orchestra's faces during the show was almost as entertaining as watching the crowd. The percussionists seemed to enjoy getting out some of their odder instruments for an introductory stroll through the aisles - what the hell was that thing that sounded like a theremin, anyway? - but the bass players leaned on their instruments with decided ennui during a long period when they weren't needed.

Lockhart seemed to enjoy the festivities as much as anyone, although the tight pants and open-necked, shiny black shirt getup was not so much hip as it was sort of a caricatured Latin lover look. Odd, because otherwise he and the Pops have gotten this pretty much exactly right with Guster, MMJ and next week Aimee Mann. Previous attempts to hip up the orchestra generally have only gone as far as attracting the sort of totally safe, Boomer-approved artists who might now be found doing car commercials. Trust me, Lockhart bumping butts with Cyndi Lauper on the Esplanade a couple of years ago did nothing to attract the younger audience. But MMJ is precisely of the moment, and the collaboration was cooler than anything I could have imagined the Pops trying even a couple of years ago. And it rather casts the choice of Aerosmith as this year's July 4 guest stars in a different light. Next year, at least try Coldplay. Because they're the mainstream now.

Maybe the most encouraging thing about Thursday night was that I actually heard some new music I liked. Although The Unbusted were clearly holding back on the rawk in the staid confines of the upstairs bar, several songs sounded radio-ready. Singer/guitarist Joe Keefe had all kinds of diffident Conor Oberst/Paul Westerberg charisma and real control over his aching voice. (He was also one of those who'd slung a tie around his neck as camouflage.) I will be looking to hear them in a bar soon, before they pop. And that's the first time I've ever gone to Symphony Hall and found a band I hope to track down at the Middle East. Whether that translates to an increased audience for symphonic music, though, is still an open question.

[Mr. T.]

http://www.hubarts.com/weblog/2006/06/pops_jacket_fut.html

But seeing a chubby, hairy guy playing a Flying V electric guitar on the stage of Symphony Hall was still pretty different, regardless of the wardrobe.

Chubby? Is Jim getting Chubby? My dictionnary gives as explanation:
"Rounded and plump. See Synonyms at fat."

An other one gives:
"pleasantly fat, especially of children"

I don't know what to think of that. Maybe his suit was a little bit on the small side?

[tomEisenbraun]

okay see, i thought jim looked like he gained some weight, kinda goin Jim Morrison, but then at Bonnaroo, there was no doubt about his physique. he's still frickin studly. i think they're getting confused because his beard is a hell of a lot fuller than it's ever been, and his hair is at the length where it just kind of makes you look bigger, if you know what i mean. i hate the inbetween stages on haircuts. i'm at one right now.

but he's definitely not chubby. they're probably just thrown off by a beard more mammoth than they can even fathom growing.

i salute that man's facial and hope to one day aspire to it's awesomeness.

[EC]

chubby my goddamn ass.  they're just jealous because he's so godlike.  

the end.

[cmccubbin25]

he is definitely not chubby...i agree with Tom...Jim looked pretty damn skinny at bonnaroo!

[tomEisenbraun]

it's the beard, dudes. it's just got so much girth. they assume the rest of him must be massive as well...

 :o

freudian slip or completely intentional?

[EC]

i always forget that the boys are in love with jim as much as the ladies.

sometimes you can't help it.  it's kind of like how i used to feel about kate winslett.