Boston Reviews

Started by LaurieBlue, Dec 04, 2006, 08:02 AM

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LaurieBlue

Dec 04, 2006, 08:02 AM
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/12/04/my_morning_jacket_turns_up_heat/

My Morning Jacket turns up heat
By Jonathan Perry, Globe Correspondent  |  December 4, 2006

Much like its music, which often sounds more like a rolling tidal wave of pure electricity and energy than something so quaint as a rock song, My Morning Jacket's momentum just keeps building. It wasn't very long ago -- a Saturday night in 2003, in fact -- when frontman Jim James gazed out at a crowd that had jammed the downstairs room at the Middle East in Cambridge, visibly astonished that 500 people had shown up to hear and cheer his band from Louisville, Ky.

This past Saturday night at Avalon, James looked neither amazed nor even mildly surprised at the fact that four times as many folks had crammed into every nook and cranny of the ballroom, eager to envelop themselves in My Morning Jacket's glittery fusion of re-imagined Southern boogie, cosmic cowboy songs, and peyote-dusted psychedelia.

Just how unique and, more important, good a band is My Morning Jacket?

Consider that the group is touring in support of a new double-disc live album and companion concert DVD called "Okonokos," recorded last year at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco. Moreover, both are terrific (and how many concert DVDs and live albums, never mind double albums, can you say that about?).

As the quintet seems to do just about every time it takes the stage, James and Co. -- guitarist Carl Broemel , bassist Two-Tone Tommy , drummer Patrick Hallahan , and keyboardist Bo Koster -- managed to match, and perhaps surpass, its own best performances on Saturday evening.

From the group's blistering guitar jams and storming armies of feedback to the celestial howl of James's voice, bathed in reverb and soaring as if from a space mountain on high, this was a mesmerizing two-hour triumph, and one that underscored MMJ's growing reputation as one of America's very best rock bands.

"Gideon," which launched the show, was an exhilarating rocket ride to the stars, and once the band members reached the rarified air of their destination -- it didn't take them long to transport themselves, and the crowd -- they showed no sign of stopping or turning back.

Instead, they thrust forward with abandon, headlong into the possibilities that awaited them, shooting toward a universe where old - guard titans like Neil Young's Crazy Horse and the Allman Brothers plugged in alongside newer sonic avatars such as Sparklehorse and the Flaming Lips. Blissfully romantic hymnals ("Lowdown") gave way to rippling, excursive epics ("Off the Record") and then exploded into something new and electric yet again, just as dazzling, just as bright.

LaurieBlue

#1
Dec 04, 2006, 08:09 AM
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musicNews/view.bg?articleid=170327

Audiences awakening to Morning
By Jed Gottlieb/ Music Review
Monday, December 4, 2006 - Updated: 04:56 AM EST

Epic rock is a dying art. If you're a fan of skate-punk, post-grunge or rap-metal, you've got plenty of carbon-copy bands to adore. But if you're on a quest to find your generation's Who or "Misty Mountain Hop," well, you're on an odyssey of near-Homeric proportions. But don't give up, if you look long enough you'll find that most roads lead to My Morning Jacket.
 
    My Morning Jacket may not evoke the force inherent
 
    in a name such as Steppenwolf or Deep Purple, but the band's music more than makes up for its odd moniker. Saturday night at the Avalon, My Morning Jacket validated its growing reputation as an foundation-shaking live band.
 
    Often called a jam band or alt-rock group, My Morning Jacket is really just pure, epic rock. Like a legendary Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin or Traffic show, the Jim James-led Kentucky quintet wandered furiously across dozens of genres and scores of sounds over the course of Saturday's two-hour set. "Gideon" dove into strange, Floyd-like atmospherics, "Just One Thing" flirted with an acoustic-guitar, folk-ballad feel, and both "Off the Record" and "Phone Went West" were driven by classic reggae beats. Yet no matter how far they drifted - and they drifted plenty from reggae and country to psychedelic and electronica - every song retained a rock 'n' roll core.
 
    My Morning Jacket has yet to connect with a large, mainstream audience, but after touring with Pearl Jam earlier this year and selling out Avalon this weekend, that probably won,t be the case for long. There are too many guys looking for the band's '70s-style heroic energy for it to stay underground much longer.
 
    Opening the show was the Boston- and Montreal-based the Slip. Invited on tour by fans My Morning Jacket, the double billing worked perfectly. The Slip share its patrons' flare for genre-bending riffs rooted in loud, long rock. After the Slip's too-short set, the crowd gave the band a euphoric applause usually reserved for a headliner -which was doubly impressive considering half the night's audience was still outside waiting to get in.

MMJ_fanatic

#2
Dec 04, 2006, 12:52 PM
Ahhh 2 intelligent reviews--good work gentlemen!
Sittin' here with me and mine.  All wrapped up in a bottle of wine.

bold99

#3
Dec 04, 2006, 01:32 PM
Show was incredible, i've never seen Avalon so packed.  That will def be the last time they play there.  There were so many people outside looking for tix.  They had the crowd rocking.
Last Fair Deal Gone Down...

MMJ_fanatic

#4
Dec 04, 2006, 04:22 PM
I neglected to mention chatting with Pat after the show and his knuckles were all beat up from drumming so enthusistically.  I told him "whoa dude you gotta take it easy on yourself" and he says "No way man--never!"  Thats our drummer for ya :D
Sittin' here with me and mine.  All wrapped up in a bottle of wine.

starry

#5
Dec 04, 2006, 05:06 PM
yeah, I'm afraid it's time for the Orpheum...seats and all. Oh well. It was great to see them at the Avalon twice. Great while it lasted :)

Great reviews...Boston loves its MMJ.

I have those post show blues. As in, I'm psyched i went and the show blew me away, but now I'm like - "what's next. when or how can i catch them again at some point!"

I guess I throw the DVD on.
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