Boston show

[DaFunkyPrecedent]

This show kicked eternal ass!  The guys left 5 lbs of sweat and 2 tons of inspiration out on that stage last night.  I also think its time people quit whining about setlists and what they didn't get to hear.

...me too, they are touring for Evil Urges, they are going to be playing a lot from that record just like every other band that has every gone on tour for their new record...maybe if they didn't have a new record out and just decided to do a little tour then you can expect the rarities but they have been throwing in little jewels every now and then...

We fully expect to hear new material - it's the same OLD material that people are bitching about.  

[idioteque]

here is my setlist as I remember it

Mahgeetah
Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 1
Off the Record
Anytime
The Way That He Sings
Evelyn is Not Real
Two Halves
Evil Urges
Sec Walkin
Thank You Too
I'm Amazed
Lay Low
Golden
Look at You
Phone Went West
Gideon
Dondante
Smokin from Shootin
Touch Me Pt. 2

Encore:
Wordless Chorus
Highly Suspicious
Cobra
***Steam Engine (was on the setlist, got cut due to time constraints)
Run Thru
One Big Holiday



I'm probably missing a few, and this is very loose order


also, I was watching them soundcheck earlier in the afternoon, and they played Dancefloors. Not at the show though! I was bummed

Here is the setlist..   er, from the setlist    ;)


mahgeetah
anytime
off the record
evil urges
touch me pt.1
way he sings
two halves
golden
thank you too
im amazed
evelyn
sec walkin
phone
aluminum
Look at you (straight into)
dondante
gideon
lay low
smokin
touch me pt.2

(there is a big piece of black gaffers tape indicating the break)

wordless
highly
cobra
steam (crossed out in black marker)
run thru
one big


it also says on the bottom "charity:  the boston foundation"




anyone know if there is a place to buy those posters?  i didnt want to plunk down 25 bucks to have it turn into a sodden mess.

[DEmerson]

This was only my 2nd MMJ show (the other being ACL last year) so I don't have much to compare last night to, but I thought the show totally rocked. And from where I sat (toward the back of Sec. 2, about 30 rows back - wish I was closer!) the crowd seemed very into it.
Lots of bands have the hardcores that are always saying 'mix up the set list' but I know they did at least two songs last night I didn't know (Ok, I  confess, I don't have The Tennessee Fire and some of the other early stuff yet), and I don't especially dig the mellower middle songs from Evil Urges - but I think those are minor issues. Oh, I wish they were louder too.
And I was not close enough to get a good read on the band's energy level, but it seems to me they were enjoying themselves, and people around me were dancing like crazy and the crowd was on its feet from start to finish.  Bear in mind too that it was very hot and humid last night with a storm on its way (Jim James taked about how hot it was).
So again, I may not know a Great MMJ show (and I have no doubt they can be even more outstanding -and lots depends on venue, mood etc.), from an 'average' one, but I do think I know a good show when I see and hear it, and I thought Boston was an excellent rock and roll show.
The version of Dondante last night just totally blew me away - easily the best single song I've seen live this year.
There's my two cents - put me in the category of a somewhat new fan who continues to be impressed as hell by these guys, and who thinks JJ is amazing, and I walked out of the show last night into a torrential downpour, feeling that I had just witnessed one of the best bands out there right now.

[Nobes]

Agreed. I'm a fucking whiner. And agreed that it's a very subjective thing. I just felt like they were "going through the motions" a little bit. Sorry, just my opinion. ANd yes, I do believe the heat and the fact that they played 3 nights in a row prior had something to do with it.

[JSBE]

hrm.  Maybe after playing four shows in a row, three outdoors in the heat, after a three week tour of 3 hour shows, they were just a bit.  

last night was the 6th time i've seen mmj and i think it was the best of the shows i've seen (or can at least remember)

anyways, when i looked at the took schedule when the tour started up and i saw all the awesome reviews coming, the first thing i thought was "shit, boston is night #4 in a row, hopefully they're not all drained."

if mmj last night was a tired and drained band, please let me see more shows when bands are tired and drained. i mean, they rocked for 2.5 hours, an hour and 45 minutes before they took the 'official' encore break. i would have loved to have heard steam engine, but overall i thought the show was great.

[RevolutionX]

Hey All,

New fan here, and totally understand the "whining" about the show, setlist etc....I have a few bands/artists I follow and get the same way when I want some more obscure material.

That said...a guy I work with gave me copies of their stuff a few weeks ago.  I was blown away and psyched to see them live this weekend.

All I can say is...I haven't had a blast like that in a long time at a live show.  These guys really showed their stuff, the second half especially.  

I had fifth row center, so made it all the better.

So, even if the die hards are disappointed, which I understand, they did win over a new fan ;-)

Yeah, the monsoon after the show totally sucked..but, it was definitely worth it given the amazing time I had.  I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for when they get back to Boston.

[tinnitus photo]

i'll have my review up soon, but in the meantime here's a teaser from some of the photos i took last night:




this was my first MMJ show, and i thought it was excellent (mostly).

[chuck1975]

You people that are bitching about the setlist are on crack.

So what if they didn't play Steam Engine, you got to see them play Phone Went West and Cobra.

MMJ are one of the best (if not the best) live bands out there right now.

We were in section 1 in row L and the crowd was going insane all around us. Everyone was singing and dancing.

The only thing that sucked was we had the only 7 foot person at the show right in front of us for a bit.

[DEmerson]

here's the link too: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/general/view/2008_09_08_Morning_Jacket_suits_Hub_well

My Morning Jacket provided ample respite from Hurricane Hannah.

The Louisville, Ky., quintet staved off the storm during its sold-out three-hour throwdown at Bank of America Pavilion on Saturday night. When the rain and wind finally kicked up during the encore, it felt like an appropriate response to the creative watershed happening onstage.

Opener "Mahgeetah," a fine slice of MMJ's folkie Southern-soul amalgam, set an appropriately insular tone with frontman Jim James musing about being "all wrapped up in a bottle of wine." The oddball fusion of spy-thriller guitar riffs and bouncy island beats in "Off the Record" followed soon after, trailed by the falsetto-spiked funk of the title track from MMJ's envelope-pushing new CD, "Evil Urges."

And while the new material may indeed showcase unexpected turns, MMJ's sonic core - a hazy, unspecific drone of warm melodic indulgences tempered with carefully measured, often vaguely danceable midtempo rhythms - remains intact. Although it's difficult to discern what James' singing voice sounds like because it's always buried in reverb, parting with the vocal effects would mean a substantial loss of ear candy. Either way, James sounded spot-on sensational Saturday, whether reaching for the Frankie Lymon-inspired heights of "Wordless Chorus," or gorgeously harmonizing with his cohorts through the acoustically driven hills and valleys in "Golden."

Throughout, James bobbed across the stage like a curly-topped jester, occasionally throwing a cape over his shoulders to portray the mock-vampirism fueling parts one and two of "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream," the latter for which he gently tapped out a melody on autoharp. But outside of small instrumental changes (guitarist Carl Broemel added periodic texture with pedal steel and sax), the caped shenanigans and a pair of menacing, video-projected eyeballs on display, the show was more about the music than the visuals.

Saturday's triumphant set proves MMJ is headed in the right direction: combine a willingness to take chances with melodic know-how, instrumental prowess, occasional booty-shaking jaunts, enigmatic songwriting and an overall playful spirit and you've got the makings of a career band. It'd be a shame if the jam-band community's apparent embrace turned MMJ's live sets into little more than drug-drenched debauchery. But for now, unending praise is due. James saluted Boston's fullness of spirit for coming out in such heavy weather. In turn, Boston applauds James and Co. for helping wind down a shaky summer concert season on a note so sweet and high.

MY MORNING JACKET At the Bank of America Pavilion, Saturday night.

[DEmerson]

worth a quick read...

http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/general/view/2008_08_24_My_Morning_Jacket_puts_out_one-size-fits-all_sound/

[DEmerson]

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2008/09/08/morning_jackets_rambling_show_ends_on_a_high_note/

Jim James has been blessed with a voice that can do almost anything. When you front a rock band like My Morning Jacket that's interested in doing just about everything, an elastic vocal range is indeed a bonus.

My Morning Jacket

At: Bank of America Pavilion Saturday
Saturday night at Bank of America Pavilion, James and his bandmates in the Kentucky-spawned quintet covered a lot of ground in a friendly, rambling, yet overlong 2 1/2-hour show. While the running time made room for James's shaggy but stunning charms as a vocalist and songwriter, it also proved that length is not synonymous with virtue. Thanks to fluctuating energy and a preponderance of midtempo grooves, the show dragged in places.

Maybe James and company feel compelled to play such long shows in order to shoehorn in every musical style they have to offer. The first half hour alone packed in the winsome, Brian Wilson-kissed pop of "Mahgeetah," the hitching reggae of "Off the Record," the buoyant guitar rocker "Anytime," and the clatter, slink, and Southern-fried boogie of "Evil Urges," the title track of the group's equally adventurous new album.

The landscape began to flatten as the show progressed, however. James's vocals never failed to impress - whether yelping or crooning or letting loose a gorgeous, Orbisonian wail on "Evelyn Is Not Real." But the mood got increasingly murky - as did the sightlines, thanks to an overused fog machine and the band's decision not to use the venue's side video screens.

Although My Morning Jacket's epic sets, especially at festivals, occasionally get the group lumped into the jam-band scene, its improvisational efforts don't tend to push songs beyond their normal running times. The band did stretch the edges Saturday night with a nearly 17-minute version of "Dondante" that moved from spindly classic-rock guitar to psychedelic keyboard flourishes to a frenzied climax worthy of Neil Young.

Following the ebb and flow of the regular set, the encore was a revelation. The musicians exploded back onto the stage, cranking up the tempos and shifting the dynamics dramatically from song to song as if they'd received a hurricane-force second wind. They zigzagged deftly from the off-kilter beats and prog atmospherics of the whooping "Wordless Chorus" to the endearingly silly Prince-style synth funk of "Highly Suspicious" to the hypnotic "Cobra" and sparkling "One Big Holiday."

It was a little like your favorite team being down eight runs and coming back with six in the bottom of the ninth - an exciting conclusion but just shy of an overall win.

[2themoon]

[ycartrob]

It was a little like your favorite team being down eight runs and coming back with six in the bottom of the ninth - an exciting conclusion but just shy of an overall win.

I'm not even sure I know what this means. The show was a moral victory? Who were they playing? We lost 8-6?

I must be getting old  :-/

[CTdeadhead]

It was a little like your favorite team being down eight runs and coming back with six in the bottom of the ninth - an exciting conclusion but just shy of an overall win.

I'm not even sure I know what this means. The show was a moral victory? Who were they playing? We lost 8-6?

I must be getting old  :-/

Agreed this has got to be the worst analogy ever.  I've never been to a concert and left disappointed my team lost.  

[ms. yvon]

I'm not even sure I know what this means. The show was a moral victory? Who were they playing? We lost 8-6?

I must be getting old  :-/

;D ;D ;D