Boston Pops Press

[LaurieBlue]

http://cbs4boston.com/local/local_story_173201843.html

(CBS4) BOSTON The Boston Pops are bringing rock music to Symphony Hall once again.

The "Pops on the Edge" concerts started last year with a very successful collaboration with the band "Guster."

Those concerts attracted a whole new audience to Symphony Hall and this year the series is starting with Kentucky-based band "My Morning Jacket."

They've been playing together in their current configuration for the past three years and their fan base has been growing steadily.

But for the members of "My Morning Jacket" performing on the stage of Symphony Hall, backed-up by the Boston Pops, was something they could not have imagined.

"It's more of a dream, a dream you don't think will really happen. When they do happen you don't really know how to wrap your mind around it..." said keyboard player, Bo Koster.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the band joined Keith Lockhart and several Pops players on "The Late Show with David Letterman."

The collaboration is all part of the "Pops on the Edge" series.

"We tend to put labels on music. I think once you get past those labels there is no real boundaries to it.." said Koster.

"My Morning Jacket" performs at Symphony Hall again Thursday night and Aimee Mann will join the orchestra June 28 and 29.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid15870.aspx

On top of the Pops

My Morning Jacket drown out the house band at Symphony Hall


By: WILL SPITZ

6/22/2006 5:44:59 PM

JIM JAMES: Born to sing at Symphony Hall.  

It was like My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James was born to sing at Symphony Hall. On Wednesday at the first of two "Pops on the Edge" concerts featuring the Louisville band and the Boston Pops, his buoyant high tenor floated to the Hall's ceiling, meshing with the sounds of the orchestra's strings on the way up, and it was difficult to tell how much, if any, of the band's trademark reverb was in effect. After a rousing rendition of "Wordless Chorus," which found James on his knees for the falsetto-soul climax and members of the Pops helping out with back-up vocals, he commented on the show: "It's very surreal, very wonderful." The "surreal" part was spot-on — if you look the word up in the dictionary, you might find a picture of a full orchestra fronted by five longhairs in tuxes playing in front of an equal number of scruffy, shouting twentysomethings mixed in with the Pops' trad audience of prim, proper geezers. But the concert was only partly wonderful. Sure, the concept was great in theory — and it made great TV on Letterman two weeks earlier (check it on YouTube) — but the execution was trickier. Without the help of microphones, an orchestra of acoustic instruments can't compete, volume-wise, with a rock band (see Metallica vs. the San Francisco Symphony, S&M, 2000) — even when the band's sound has been restrained. That meant MMJ drummer Patrick Hallahan was forced to play an electronic kit and Two Tone Tommy's bass was all but inaudible. Pops percussionist Patrick Hollenbeck's arrangements were excellent — when you could hear them. Hollenbeck gets bonus points for not going overboard (see Metallica vs. the San Francisco Symphony, ibid.); he added simple harmonic bits for extra beef, and spare, subtle melodic embellishments. But when you couldn't hear the Pops, as was the case for most of the concert, it was frustrating to watch — a great band playing for keeps but sounding suffocated, and a world-class orchestra almost completely drowned out.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2006/06/22/live-review-my-morning-jacket-and-the-boston-pops/

Fresh off their performance at last weekend's Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, last night Kentucky rockers My Morning Jacket donned tuxedos for the first of two nights with the Boston Pops. While Bonnaroo brought mainly hippies and hipsters, their collaboration with the Pops attracted a bizarre range of music fans — from diehard My Morning Jacket fans ready to shout out their requests to senior citizens with season passes to random Boston tourists. Even the company's conductor Keith Lockhart could tell the mix was unusual, asking the crowd, "How many of you have never heard of My Morning Jacket?"

The Pops, now in their 121st season, opened the show with their own set. As cocktail waitresses delivered bottles of beer and wine to the jazz-club-style tables, Lockhart led the ensemble through orchestrations by other artists who've bridged the gap from pop to classical, from Bjork's "Overture" (off the soundtrack to Dancer in the Dark) to Elvis Costello's Il Sogno, the rocker's ballet based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Then the house lights dimmed.

After a short break, My Morning Jacket joined the orchestra of about a hundred, who had prepared for the evening by listening to bootlegs of the band's San Francisco Fillmore shows last November. Beneath an organ which crowned the stage, the rockers launched into the 2001 song "At Dawn," as percussionists walked through the crowd playing handheld instruments. By the close of that same number, however, frontman Jim James and Co. were already up to their usual stage antics.

A wide-ranging set of music followed that ran the gamut of the entire My Morning Jacket discography, with the Boston Pops helping to create a mystical, fairy-tale-like setting. Strings added another, lusher dimension to the song "Golden" (off 2003's It Still Moves), while on the newer songs "Gideon" and "Wordless Chorus" (off 2005's Z) and "I Will Sing You Songs" (also off It Still Moves) the Pops added a heavier dose of the Kentucky rockers' trademark reverb.

On another 2003 track, "Just One Thing," James, behind his usual wall of hair, switched between acoustic and electric guitars, while fellow guitarist Carl Broemel stepped up to the mike to deliver backup vocals. The best collaboration came on "The Way He Sings," with the horns propelling the usually gentle track. After closing out the set with the electrifying dance number "Run Thru" to a standing ovation — one that actually brought both the floor and balcony to their feet — James returned for a solo acoustic performance of "Bermuda Highway."

After another standing ovation the tuxed-up rock band, looking like gentlemen for the evening, bowed and exited stage left.
-- Charley Rogulewski

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.jambands.com/NewsArchives.phtml?newsfile=redesign_news280.html#6-22-16

 MMJ Goes Pops

Last night My Morning Jacket ventured into the classical realm, performing ten songs with the Boston Pops. Drawing mostly from its echo-laced breakthrough album, 2003's It Still Moves, My Morning Jacket offered a number of choice songs, including "I Will Sing You Songs," "Steam Engine," "Golden" and "Just One Thing" with the Pops providing strings and additional woodwinds. Throughout the night, the quintet also drew from its current release, Z ("Gideon" and "Wordless Chorus") and drifted back to 2001 ("Dawn" with "The Way That He Sings"). At the end of the night, Jim James closed the performance with an acoustic version of "Bermuda Highway" aided by the Pops. "I look to bands like Led Zeppelin," drummer Patrick Hallahan tells Jambands.com. "They created this big rock sound using an orchestra and strings." My Morning Jacket will perform with the Boston Pops once again again tonight at Boston, MA's Symphony Hall.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.glidemagazine.com/1/reviews1345.html

My Morning Jacket with The Boston Pops
Symphony Hall, Boston MA - 06/22/2006
Andrew Bruss
Tuesday, June 27, 2006  
 
My Morning Jacket rocked a sold-out crowd at Boston's Symphony Hall this past Thursday night. However, this was no ordinary My Morning Jacket concert or crowd. Accompanied by the entirety of the Boston Pops, the Kentucky-bred powerhouse tore through a set of tunes that stretched from all ends of their catalog and incorporated the classical orchestra into their pieces with a compositional competence that is rare in the mainstream musical community today.

At Symphony Hall, ticket holders were ushered to their seats in between songs, whereas at the group's previous performance at Bonnaroo, one merely had to incorporate the risk of getting trampled on while pushing his or her way to the front of the crowd. Things were clearly following the customs and traditions of what a person would expect from a crowd of Symphony Hall season ticket holders. It may have been My Morning Jacket's set, but it was the Pops' house, and things went by the Pops' rules. Not only was champagne being served to folks in their seats, but the more conservative members of the crowd even applauded as Pop's conductor Keith Lockhart took time to pay the bills and asked for a round of applause for their corporate sponsors.

As alien as the atmosphere may have been to someone planning on attending a Pops/My Morning Jacket concert, it was clear from the get-go that it would be the rockers who would be teaching the classical Pops crowd how to have a good time. The Pops had already completed a set with compositions ranging from Bjork to Gershwin, but when My Morning Jacket front man Jim James led his group of Crazyhorse-esque musicians on stage, the rockers in the crowd erupted into frenzy that the Pops don't get treated to very often.

The group initially tore into the album defining "At Dawn," and then led a stage full of classical musicians through a set that stretched from their newest album opener, "Wordless Chorus," to their sweet-yet-somber "I Will Sing You Songs." As the night moved forward and the set progressed, it amazed the attendees how orchestra-friendly My Morning Jacket's material is. But what truly stood out as the sight of the night was Keith Lockhart leading his famed orchestra while taking stage cues from Jim James.

 
All in all, the night's cross-pollination of cultures was a success. Leaving Symphony Hall, folks could imagine full-orchestral accompaniment with My Morning Jacket songs that weren't even performed. The majority of the songs My Morning Jacket fused with the Pops were from the mellower end of their repertoire, but had they incorporated more of their energizing compositions like "One Big Holiday" or "Mahgeeta," the cultural fusion would have been complete. However, a less-than-satisfying set list isn't nearly enough to overshadow the clash of the cultural titans that took place in Symphony Hall.
 

[jonnynra]

heres a review from glidemagazine.com

http://www.glidemagazine.com/1/reviews1345.html

[ColdCold_Lightning]

Thanks Laurie for the great articles....  I hope upon hope that this show is released by the band on DVD.  I am partially glad I did not see these shows live as my eyes and ears may have exploded   :o

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/07/01/pops_need_to_start_a_real_revolution/

"So when Lockhart and company announced that this season's lineup would expand to feature two artists -- the adventuresome rock band My Morning Jacket and the gifted singer-songwriter Aimee Mann -- my expectations ran high. MMJ is all about meshing styles and taking unexpected detours. Aimee Mann's songs are devastatingly literate and well crafted; moreover, she's the poster girl for freedom from corporate oppression in the music industry -- all of which boded well for this ostensibly cutting-edge collaboration.

But both shows were letdowns -- not because the hall wasn't full of jeans and flip-flops (it was) or the musicians played poorly (they didn't) or the set lists were disappointing (on the contrary). The disappointment was directly proportional to the missed opportunity.

My Morning Jacket's set began auspiciously enough, with the room pitch-black and percussionists in the aisles. And then the interesting part ended. What followed was an hour of muted rock tunes, sweetened with polite orchestral flourishes but only rarely elevated by the sort of dramatic interplay and cinematic scope one imagines a world-class orchestra and an imaginative rock band are capable of creating.

I want to hear Jim James' s lonely howl rise up in a patch of piccolos: off-pitch and otherworldly and exhilaratingly out of place. Let the percussionists sprinkle their wares in the aisles -- not in a token gesture but an in-your-face musical statement. Or how about turning the tables and letting an indie band ornament Stravinsky? ``Rite of Spring" is as noisy and jagged as a rock tune, and if the ultimate goal is to indoctrinate young music lovers into the classical fold, the Pops must cultivate a real sense of adventure. It's the essence of youth, the foundation of rock music, and the only hope for the future of the subscriber base.

``Smashing boundaries" was the theme of Lockhart's commentary and first-half programming at both the MMJ and Mann shows -- hence Bjork, Gershwin, and classical Costello were among the mash of opening works. Lockhart is right to ally his experimental music series with such enterprising artists. But if you're going to draw a line from those boundary-busting musicians to Pops on the Edge, you had better aspire to some permutations of your own.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.thehoot.net/?module=displaystory&story_id=1441&format=html

"...The Boston Pops managed to delve into the world of rock, playing alongside Joe Perry and Steven Tyler on the 4th of July and My Morning Jacket in late June; the "Aerosmith" set left the crowd wanting more after performing two and a half songs, and the pair of My Morning Jacket shows left many out of the crowd. With most people unable to find their way down to the symphony, David Letterman (and YouTube) offered the rest of the country a taste; shortly before the "Pops on the Edge" Series took off, My Morning Jacket played an electrified rendition of "Gideon" with select members of the Pops. There was no more surreal event on television this summer than watching a band of scraggly Southern rockers head-banging in tuxedoes as the infectious melody merged beautifully with the orchestral majesty of the Pops' performance..."

[midwesterner]

I recently bought a new computer and was organizing my photos and came across this video from the 6/22 Boston Pops show.

My Morning Jacket with the Boston Pops - "Run Thru" - 6/22/2006 - Boston, MA

I also have video from 2 other songs that if I get a chance I will upload. IMO this is the best video I have seen surface from these shows.

[slappymoe]

that was freakin' awesome!

thanks for sharing.

[mahg33ta]

great video - thanks!   No clock arms is funny to see.

I really regret not going to those shows.   One of my more stupid decisions.

[Jane]

does anyone have a live recording of this?

[danz]

does anyone have a live recording of this?

it's the holy grail of live recordings for me