Friday Dallas Rambling Part Two

[George_Savage]

             Fast forward to tonight...my fingers don't feel so well now.   Anyway, I never got a response from the Gypsy Tea Room about taping.  I debated it.  I tried to get a nap because I haven't slept well all week with these crises in the family.  I slept about ten minutes this afternoon, but I was soon up and trying to get organized.  I realized that I had only one MD.   I stopped on the way out of town at Wal-mart.  No luck.   I went to a music store (Hasting's) and I had to get a second opinion because the first guy was about as helpful and friendly as that  'fuck you' asshole at the show on Thursday!    Luckily, I got a couple of MDs.  This guy wasn't even sure if they were MDs, and they were the 74 minute
variety.  I haven't bought a 74 minute MD in years before tonight.  They were expanded to 80 minutes soon after I began taping on January 30, 1999 (Slobberbone was the first band I taped..Denton, Texas).  
             Anyway, I got 'em and I skedaddled.  I told my friend Sitter and his wife Croc that I was going over there early tonight.   I knew that the crowd would be a bear.  I ended up enduring not one but two traffic mishaps.   Luckily, neither one of them amounted to more than about 5-7 minutes each.    I arrived about the same time as last night, but of course the parking was ridiculous.   I didn't even try to find a spot.   I just paid the $6 fee.  Last night I got a spot within three spaces of the intersection that the GTR is located.   I must be livin' right.
                I still didn't have an answer, but I stuffed my MD recorder, my mikes, mike batteries, cough drops, AA batteries, and who knows what else in these fashionable 'cargo' pants that I have :D   I got in there and I staked out a spot suitable for taping (near the center, about halfway back).  I saw those dudes from OKC that I met last night.   I used to tell MMJ that "I have carefully prepared tonight's setlist" before their shows.   Those were the days when you could/would/should just walk up to 'em on the street on in the bar and lay some BS on 'em.  So since that wasn't an option, I carefully prepared tonight's taping set-up.
 I haven't tapes much lately.   I guess it was either the Centro-matic show in March or New Pornographers/Belle
and Sebastian from March.   I may be forgetting something
but it's been a dry year for taping.
              I figured that I should go ahead and get the gear out and just throw caution to the wind.   If they're going to bust me for audio taping (which was not banned according to the signs, I just wanted to know!   Brings back the time I heard an interview with Lennon about getting his citizenship.  He said something like "that's all well and good that they have approved it, but until I get that card in my hand I'll still be wondering about it" - I just set it up and went with it.  
             I had made a conscious decision that my 44 (and there's so much more)-year-old bladder wasn't going to be able to endure beer.   I ended up going right after I arrived and I bought a $2 water.   Sure, I was jealous of the beer-
drinkers, who wouldn't be!?   But I knew that if I was going to stand there for two hours that beer and taping didn't mix.  
              So I put that water in my back pocket and sipped sporadically and slowly.  God bless Halls cough drops!  
There was a point during the show when I saw a dude completely dousing his surrounding concert-goers with beer.   He was just holding it up over his head and shaking it all over the place.  The receipients were laughing, it was hilarious.   Anyway, man, I have been typing so long that I forgot what the main gist of this ridiculosity is.  First off, this may be too long to post.  So quickly...loved the setlist.  They opened w/The Dark, which was the first-ever song I heard by MMJ, live or studio (since I hadn't heard anything on CD yet) on 10/25/01, a date which shall live in infamy (at least in my own red-eyed mind), then Heartbreakin Man.  Was pleasantly surprised by Honest Man.  They shortened it considerably - I remember seein' 'em in Houston on July 16, 2002 and that song clocked in at over 11 minutes.   Jim and Johnny doing those respective guitar solos was just awesome.  I sent that to Kory, Dylan, Sweatboard, or Dave, I think, for your enjoyment.  
               Movin' on: they continued with 'Z', classic shit.  I LOVE 'Z' - as an old old-timer, though, it's still kind of funny to see that the new fans aren't familiar with a lot of stuff that they're playin on this tour.   You have to start somewhere, though, and I would guess that every new MMJ fan would be very interested in going back and getting The Tennessee Fire and At Dawn.  Many people hadn't heard They Ran or Sweetheart yet until tonight.   But that's kinda like any big music fan of any artist.  If said artist has a catalog at all and you dig their current stuff, then you probably are going to go back and try to discover what else they've put out.   Okay,
enough rambling, only Friday night show comments now!
                  Mott told me at The Ryman 'this is Jim's 'Al Green'
impression' when he was singing They Ran.  I agree, and I remember that Jim alluded to the Rev. Al Green's show in Nashville on June 20, 2004....MMJ had just seen Al Green in
Birmingham, I think.  It was awesome the way that he (sang)
but also how he jumped around.  Sweetheart:  unbelievable.
Glad that they're expanding the setlists.   I wish that I was independantly wealthy and I would just follow MMJ around on the road 'til I was too old to drive!  
                  Back to the taping events...I know that this tape, if at all good, won't be perfect or complete.   I looked down at the settings about three songs in and it was completely blown out (maximum volume) ..I tried to turn it down and it wouldn't minimize the recording volume and I realized that the mike plug had come undone.  So...not sure how much of those "Man" songs, as my distant relative Blaine Sanders
called 'em, are missing, but something is missing.  Maybe
someone else had already posted with the good news that a full-show tape has been readied for our disposal by the time that I finish this.   The curse of the Minidisc, too, reared its ugly head.  They're 80 minutes long.  MMJ played longer than 80 minutes w/their first set.  Therefore, I had to stop recording on MD1 and so I missed almost the entire introduction to One Big Holiday, still a crowd/kid favorite.  
 I haven't heard any of the tape yet,  I guess because "I feel like typing"...or I felt like it.  Now I just feel like crawling into a hole and soaking my fingers!  
                 In closing (whew), tell them to buy more My Morning Jacket albums, and thanks to the boys and to the Powers that Be for this amazing group.   Once I figure something out on the tape I will holler at some of you tapeheads and send it out.  Maybe/hopefully someone will come through with a full show.  If not, this'll have to do.  It was definitely a unique show.  I don't know the reason but I think that they changed up the ending to Dondante, among other things.  MMJ are the masters of surprise.    F'in Badasses!   Peace to all you beautiful creatures!

Yer pal,
Low Dog

[Mr. T.]

Thanks George. It's been a good read

[Jernigan]

I concur.....I throughly enjoyed reading that.

Thanx,

-MJ

[BH]

You da man George.  Thanks for bring me there if only in spirit and if only for a moment. :)

Sweetheart.  Chalk up another gem!