post-tour ruminations

[ms. yvon]

**hey kids, any thoughts on the okonokos tour now that this leg is finished?**

getting home from the road and getting back into a routine has been a bit weird.  my work schedule is strangely slow:  this affords me quite a lot of time to brew all the thoughts and experiences from that couple of weeks.

every morning i wake up with a different song in my head:  this morning it was easy morning rebel.  i did spend a good three days walking around singing cobra.

great luck & good fortune:  aside from getting tickets to the shows, i didn't do any planning for this trip, often booking my car rental in the next town from the airport as i was waiting to leave.  still.  everything worked out.  everything.  not everything went smoothly, and i did stay at that meth-den/hotel in denver one night, but i got to all the shows on time and in one piece.  always worth noting.   ;)

a luxury of seeing mmj several times in a short period is getting to find a different spot in the audience every night.  the first few shows are always taken in as a whole--that.  subsequent nights one can spend time watching the show more elementally:  watching each of the guys to see how they are making the music they do, watching the crew as the show is happening-troubleshooting, responding to stuff on stage, noticing the difference in lighting from night to night.  i think this is why my show posts got more and more detailed.  (christ this sounds dry and academic.  woo.  this is what 2 hours of sleep in a car will get you.    ;D  )

my music-geek fantasy is to have access to a recording of any show with all the musicians on discrete tracks.  i'd like to be able to bring one person at a time up in the mix to hear exactly what they are doing.  

i met some of the warmest, most interesting and generous people on this trip.  i went to most of these shows by myself, but not once did i leave feeling as if i'd been there alone.  you kids are swell!

still the post-tour comedown was a bit thick this week.  so i'm at the airport in midland texas...listening to tennessee fire, posting on the board, heading home from seeing a jeff tweedy show in marfa, tx.  woo!  [smiley=beer.gif]

[BH]

Thanks yvon!  I had been thinking of starting a similar thread to talk about the little things that everyone remembers about the OKONOKOS! tour and this thread will do nicely.  I certainly can't remember all of my special moments at this very moment but here are just a few.

I got to meet my very first board member in person.  Cheers tenn if you are out there! [smiley=beer.gif]

I brought a few of my friends, two of which were just starting to get why I loved this band so much, and after seeing them live, were completely struck down with the Jacket Fever.

I got to listen to three, count them three, different shows live streaming on the internet with some of you lovely people who I now consider my friends.  Philly, New Years Eve and Sandy Eggo ( ;))!  I love the 21st century.

The old classics that were broken out, including a gem from the Early Recordings.

I wanted to hear By My Car but never expected it to happen.  AND IT DID!  I like to think this was not a coincidence and Jim reads all my posts. ::)

And last, but certainly not least, the infinite number of chills I received.  (I guess this was really all I needed to say, huh?)

[megisnotreal]

i am envious of you, ms, yvon, as going on jacket tour would be a dream come true.

next time, take me with you.

[sweatboard]

Just a couple off the top of my head.

TN Theater

The inflatable sea creatures were brilliant.  This was also my first experience with the new lights, the lights finally live up to the music and that says a whole lot about the light show.  I was aww struck with how well the show and the lights fit inside of our elegant little theater.  These guys rock the small bar joints, the theaters, the churches, the tents, basically they will rock you anywhere you like and do it with Authority and Full Throttle Beauty.  It was just a beautiful evening in Knoxville the crowd was into it, there was air guitar (I can't stop myself), there was pogoing (Tracy and I went ape shit during O is the One), there was slow dancing (Tracy and I during any given slow song), there was laughter (woman's basketball hall of fame),  there were tears (of joy).   One of my favorite moments was during Don Dante when Tracy and I just looked over at each other at the exact same moment and wide eye smiled at each other, there was something inside his smile that was a meaning that I understood.

The Tabenacle

My wife and I went to this show by ourselves and we walked in and went straight to the basement part, it's tiny, and I was thinking, man how are they going to get everyone down here?  I asked the bar tender about it and he just laughed and was like "no man, the show is upstairs!"  We walked into the upstairs part and it was one of the coolest places I've ever been.  Wax Fang just tore the roof off the motherfucker that night.  I looked at my wife at one point during their set and I was like "holy shit, I don't know what they did before the show tonight but as good as they were in Knoxville they just took it to an entirely diffrent level"  The crowd that night was on absolute FIRE from start to finish.  AB and I were a bit wore out so we stayed back my the soundboard for most of the show.  We had the most awesome dance together to Steam Engine.  I'll never forget it.  I had tears in my eyes the entire time.  I set up my tapeing equipment even though I saw someone else was tapeing and I'm glad I did because the other guy never released his tape and they played "By My Car"!!!!!!!!! I would have been very sad if this show didn't get archived.  They played "Easy Morning Rebel" and the jam at the end of that song was truly something to behold.  I remember having so much fun watching people in the balcony section just going nuts the entire time.  There was this one really drunk guy up in the balcony that was dancing like the world was coming to an end and Anna Beth and I really loved that guy.  There was a shit ton of people with Pearl Jam shirts on which I thought was great.    


I'll do the other shows later.

[sweatboard]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot..............


[size=36]Tracy, WILL YOU MARRY ME!!!!!  ;D[/size]


Great topic Ms. Yvon

[ChiefOKONO]

a quick observation that comes to mind right now is that this band is firing on all cylinders, playing some of the best and tightest music and jams that they have ever done.  I feel fortunate to be able to catch them to experience their rise over the past few years!

and oh that light show on stage is just Awesome!!!!!!

more later...

[ms. yvon]

I got to meet my very first board member in person.

me too!  i had met chiefokonokos at the listening party in los angeles, but this was the first time we've seen each other at shows.  met anu, viva, jenerator (rad username!), tom, sfsky, jacketgirl, and lisamarie in denver and san francisco.  it's such a party meeting up with posters at shows!

I got to listen to three, count them three, different shows live streaming on the internet with some of you lovely people who I now consider my friends.  Philly, New Years Eve and Sandy Eggo ( ;))!  I love the 21st century.

didn't get to hear any of the streams but LOVED reading the listening threads the next day.  it's like reliving the show--the excitement as each tune is revealed rules.   ;D

I wanted to hear By My Car but never expected it to happen.  AND IT DID!  I like to think this was not a coincidence and Jim reads all my posts. ::)

you never know.  guaranteed they had wireless internet service on the bus.  ;)

And last, but certainly not least, the infinite number of chills I received.  (I guess this was really all I needed to say, huh?)

HELL YES!   :D  woo!

one more note:  i ran into a friend at that tweedy show in texas who had also been at the anaheim HOB show.  200 people in the entire texas venue and there were two of us there.  BOOYAH!

[ms. yvon]

The inflatable sea creatures were brilliant...

:ogonna have to check the gallery for this

they will rock you anywhere you like and do it with Authority and Full Throttle Beauty.

;D  WELL SAID!

...there was air guitar...pogoing...slow dancing...tears (of joy).   One of my favorite moments was during Don Dante when Tracy and I just looked over at each other at the exact same moment and wide eye smiled at each other, there was something inside his smile that was a meaning that I understood.

brilliant!


something else very fun for me:  i've been an infrequent poster here for a couple of years.  i've had a great time posting and reading all the show reviews, notes and stats here.  [smiley=beer.gif]

[.Walt]

Went to the Milwaukee show, it was a blast. got to sit in the side box seats, right next to carl. the retard i am, starting smoking a blunt first song. saw a security guard pointed at us as soon as we lit up, and he ran from the balcony to the box seats. but jokes on the security guard, the time it took him to get to us i got high. smoked with a guy who went by himself, and had drinks with him after the show, cool guy. then leaving the bar we saw the bus, and a roadie came out and started smoking a one'e. I had a heart to heart talk with him and it went like this:

me- hey man, are a roadie?
roadie- yup
me - is the band in there?
roadie- yup
me- can we talk to them?
roadie- nope
me- can you tell them that we thought they rocked?
roadie- yup
me- thanks
roadie- yup

i felt like i knew him my whole life.

[sweatboard]

 ;D

[megisnotreal]

Great post, Captain.  ;D

I only got to see two shows out of this tour, but their respective awesomeness superceeded all comprehension.

Higthlights for me:
*Meeting the band in the "frozen tundra" of Illinois
*Meeting some of my favorite Jacketeers at the Ryman (I still kick my own ass for not hanging out later after the show)
*Sharing with my Toblerone with freezing people outside the Foellinger as we waited to purchase our tickets
*Running in to Brad Barr of The Slip after the "Folgers" show and having thank me and my buddy for being the only ones rocking out during their set
*Getting one of Jim and Carl's pics from my favorite member of the MMJ crew

But if I had to choose one favorite aspect of this tour, it would be... seeing the effect this band has on people. I met some guys both at the Ryman and at Folger's who had never seen MMJ live before. I gushed and was all, "prepare thyself!" I could see them during the shows, just having their fucking faces melted off by the pure power of genuine rock and roll... being baptized in sweet, warm, sticky reverb and loving every minute of it. I remember one of those guys at the Ryman running in to me after the show and just saying, "Goddamn, you were right."

I like seeing happy people. And that's what the Jacket does. They make people happy, giddy, ecstatic... whatever. And in a cold and generally shitty world like this one, this is a very special (and very rare) thing.

I know none of the boys will ever read this, but...

I still want to say thank you. Thank you for running yourselves ragged for months so that, for two nights, I could forget all the things that make me sad, all the people who've screwed me over, bullshit money problems, and term papers. Thank you for resuscitating my soul and blowing my mind. Thank you for the sacrifices you make to make people like me happy.

And thank you for the "TTOMO" in the preshow tunes, because that shit is hilarious.

[EAZYE]

 ;D I second that emotion  ;D

[TEO]

The first time I saw this band I told my son "that is the REAL shit", he acknowledged and believed. Every time after, they just kept on getting better! I thought the Z tour would be hard to top, but they did with Oko. Every album is entirely different. Favorite Oko moment? Besides the show, seeing the boys donate over $200,000 to charity at the Clowes Hall show. I just can't wait to see the next direction. If it surprises me as much as Z and Oko I can die a happy man!  

[TheBigChicken]

New Years Eve show....it really did snow,right...hands down ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[ms. yvon]

at the fillmore, 12.30.06:  wordless chorus in the front row w/sfsky singing, soaring music, jim howling over our heads, lights, and the BUBBLES.  i looked up and saw bo smiling at the whole scene.

favorite 'wordless' o'the run.  *beam!*

[ms. yvon]

something else:  about developing this sort-of one-way familiarity:  
i work in tv editorial.  everyday i work all day with footage of the actors on our show.  you see them in and out of character, working, flubbing, goofing off.  you know their tics on a pretty personal level (imagine one frame at a time).  but these people don't know you at all, except if they see you hanging out around the craft service table on the stage.  ;D  

seeing the band and crew put their show on so many nights was a bit like this.  i recognized the people setting up, got to know a little of the drill in prepping for the show, got to see all the musicians performing and responding to the crowd and situations.  i feel like if i ran into one of them somewhere i would speak to them in some weirdly familiar manner.  (that's got to be weird for them.)

at the end of the run it did feel like the end of a tv season.  the crew was breaking down the stage and we were all dizzy, resonating with the show, wandering out of the venue.  a bit of the last day of school feeling, but much much cooler.   8-)

[ChiefOKONO]

you know, there is NOTHING like the last day at school feeling.

that was an amazing feeling!

[vespachick]

You know, I've only seen three MMJ shows – ending with Portland a few weeks ago, Fillmore for NYE and before that in Los Angeles in 2005 for the Z tour (at Henry Fonda Theatre, which is a helluva venue in my opinion).  I bought tix for all 3 nights of the Fillmore when I was still living in LA and I thought I would just take a simple end of the year road trip to The City.  Ended up moving to P-Town just before the shows and had to sell my Fri & Sat tix.  On the upside, I sold those tix to folks who definitely seemed to be true fans and I sold them at cost - actually took something of a hit cost-wise to ship them down, but I'm all about kharma.  Anyway, at the airport in Eugene on my way to SFO for NYE, I almost didn't get out because of weather and considered blowing it off all together for sanity's sake.  Thank the good lord I didn't.  That show seriously changed me and the way I listen to music.  I wasn't really expecting to have my mind blown.  Which it was, for sure.  I literally got off the plane, visited my brother and such for a measly few hours, went to the show, slept for maybe four hours and headed back to the airport.  Not my idea of luxury but well worth it.  (I'm sure Ms. Yvon has worse stories!)  In the interim I was monitoring the board here and saw all the fans on the other coast who were angsting about not seeing MMJ for NYE. I remember thinking "what's the big deal, it's just a show, you'll catch 'em next time".  Whoa!  Now I get it.  I have become so woefully obsessed that I'm scaring myself!  And now that these small club shows have come up I'm am just greener than Oscar with envy.  I haven't been able to listen to anything but MMJ since about mid-December. Anything else just sounds like sacrilege.  Okay, well I have squozen in maybe two or three discs since then, but honestly, it doesn't resonate like it should.  I think I'm ruined.  Ruined I say!  One of the many things that has stayed with me from these later shows is the look that JJ had on his face as he would look out at the crowd.  Taking it all in seemingly with pure fucking love, sheer wonder and awe.  I hope the entire band & crew knows that I'm looking right back at them just the same way.  Thanks for it all.

[the_wizzard]

I believe this was one of those moments at the Crystal. I was right up front, stage left in front of Jim James' mic.  I watched what you saw (how cool is that?).  
Takin' it all in and feeling the energy from the crowd.  I swear...it is amazing to see them play.  It is like watching an epic unfold....

[vespachick]

I believe this was one of those moments at the Crystal. I was right up front, stage left in front of Jim James' mic.  I watched what you saw (how cool is that?).  
Takin' it all in and feeling the energy from the crowd.  I swear...it is amazing to see them play.  It is like watching an epic unfold....

Liz, I was in the boozer section, right up front as close as I could get, watching it unfold.  That pic you've shared, it gives me chills!!  Thanks, yet again!