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June 24, 2008
My Morning Jacket, Live @ Radio City Music Hall 06.20.08
Two Friday nights: two concerts. One stretched its sound out for four hours in the home of Andrew Jackson and Jack Daniels under the on and off percussion of rain. The second show: compact raucousness under the plush curtained luxury at the very epicenter of the capitalist world. One had a cinema tent; the other once held the opening for To Kill a Mockingbird starring the building’s former usher, Gregory Peck. To paint a perfectly blunt picture, one had a desperate line for the porta-potties; the other had a “gentlemen’s lounge” in the men’s room. True, scene changes do not get much different than going from the 700 acres of dirt at Bonnaroo to a place nicknamed "The Showplace of the Nation," however, the determined aural output of My Morning Jacket at both of these shows is solid evidence that they are well on their way to proving that they are a very different band.
Sometimes you get to catch a concert in which it is obvious to both band and audience that they are being propelled forward. Stellar performances that were once small steps up the musical ladder have turned into a walk up a spiral staircase. If this metaphor for upward mobility still holds true then MMJ’s four hour late night set at Bonnaroo put the band on an escalator... and if Bonnaroo was an escalator then Radio City certainly has to be classified with elevator status... and if MMJ at Radio City was an elevator then the recently announced New Year’s show at Madison Square Garden has the potential to be the “Great Glass Elevator” from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a single show that can take the band through the ceiling and into the upper echelon of musical touring acts (and yes I did pay a boatload of literary bucks for this "elevator metaphor").
What is strange about My Morning Jacket’s rise is that it has been so clearly defined. The festival circuit has gone a long way in giving the band characterization and recognition. 2008 capped off their fifth appearance at Bonnaroo. This in addition to stellar Coachella, Austin City Limits, and Lollapalooza performances make it safe to say that millions have been wowed by this band without ever buying a ticket to an individual MMJ show. Yet, the fact that 6,000 seats to Radio City sold out in 22 minutes should be a signal that all of this is changing. Striving for success while keeping a band together can take a Greek mythological level of persistence (even the Spartans in 300 could have ended up like Guns N’ Roses). The New Year’s concert at MSG shows that the next level from Radio City is fully within distance, it is only 17 blocks and an avenue over to be exact.
At Bonnaroo, My Morning Jacket had four hours to play into what Jim James referred to as the “golden rain.” As a result they took every inch of opportunity to showcase the band’s eclectic range and mix of power. In four hours they went from the spectral planes of reverb in which their following was built to a slew of covers including Sly in the Family Stone, Funkadelic, Erykah Badu’s “Tyrone," James Brown, Kool and the Gang, Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street,” The Velvet Underground’s “Oh Sweet Nuthin,” and of course ending with Mötley Crüe’s “Home Sweet Home.” Add a guitar duel with Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and a Nashville horn section to a show ending an hour before sunrise and it is easy to see why MMJ’s Bonnaroo performance was seen as such a stepping stone.
At Radio City the band concentrated much more on delivering a single knockout punch with original material. Each song was delivered with full power as it was clear that the band was moved by playing in what Jim James described as “one of the most spiritual places on earth.” While witnessing the band rage through a catalogue of southern hair band rockers, subtle moments of gentle calmness, newly released dance floor thumps, and three occasions where Jim James charged up a staircase to the mezzanine level from the stage, it became vividly clear that MMJ should be able to fill MSG as if it were the Patrick Ewing days.
Though the flashes of radiant lights add a level of aura to the show, there are no cheap tricks in this act. Instead, their success is simply the result in the fact that front man Jim James has a one in a kind rock n’ roll voice which could fill out the Roman Coliseum and smooth out every inch of stone. Add in the drummer Patrick Hallahan who’s head banging hair alone could play a snare solo, the burly bass lines of “Two-Tone Tommy,” the layered texture of keyboardist Bo Koster, the onslaught of power of lead guitarist Carl Broemel, and it is no surprise that My Morning Jacket stands out alone in a closet full of overcoats (I had a couple of literary bucks left for that one).
By now it has been well documented that MMJ’s new album, Evil Urges, has caught many by surprise due to the sharp turn away from the walls of reverb to a sound that has forced every critic to use a reference to Prince. The truth is that if Jim James has the ability to hit the upper vocal registry with as much power as he has proven then I would be a bit disappointed if he did not take the opportunity to do a wheelie on the same motorcycle used by Prince in Purple Rain.
After seeing a good portion of the new material live, some of the new songs are quickly becoming favorites. Off the new album, “Smokin From Shootin” and “Touch Me Part 2” have enough emotion to lead the entire cast of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to start writing poetry under a tree (I ran out of literary bucks for that one).
My Morning Jacket’s road to Radio City Music Hall has of course been much longer and more arduous then the quick cab ride up 6th Avenue in which I made it seem. What happens after the band plays MSG is anyone’s guess though the band clearly has enough power and variety of sound and songwriting to reach the next level. This mixed with the fact that they left the Everlasting Gobstopper on Wonka’s desk; a ride on the glass elevator may only be the start of things to come.
// stream of the Radio City show
MMJ Looking Forward:
06-25 Sheffield, England - Leadmill
06-26 Bristol, England - Academy
06-27 Manchester, England - Academy
06-29 Glastonbury, England - Glastonbury Festival
07-01 Hamburg, Germany - Gruenspan
07-02 Cologne, Germany - Luxor
07-04 Werchter, Belgium - Rock Werchter Festival
07-06 Kent, England - The Hop Farm
07-08 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
07-09 Paris, France - Le Trabendo
07-11 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
07-12 Naas, Ireland - Oxegen Festival
07-13 Balado, Scotland - T in the Park
07-15 London, England - The Forum
07-19 Benicàssim, Spain - Benicàssim Festival
07-26 Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival
08-01-03 Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival (Jim James solo acoustic)
08-15 Nashville, TN - Riverfront Park
08-16 Louisville, KY - Waterfront Park ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
08-18 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
08-19 Council Bluffs, IA - Stir Cove ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
08-21 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater *
08-23 Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
08-24 Austin, TX - Stubb's Bar-B-Q ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
08-27 Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
08-29 Miami, FL - The Fillmore ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
08-30 Orlando, FL - House of Blues ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
08-31 Myrtle Beach, SC - House of Blues ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-02 Charlottesville, VA - Charlottesville Pavilion ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-03 Washington, DC - Constitution Hall ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-05 Philadelphia, PA - Festival Pier ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-06 Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-19 Berkeley, CA - Greek Theatre ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-21 Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-23 Tempe, AZ - The Marquee ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-24 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-25 San Diego, CA - SDSU Open Air Theater ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-27 Portland, OR - McMenamins Edgefield ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
09-28 Seattle, WA - McCaw Hall ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
10-02 Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
10-03 Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
10-04 Detroit, MI - The Fillmore ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
10-09 Chicago, IL - Chicago Theatre ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
10-10 Chicago, IL - Chicago Theatre ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
12-31 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden ("An Evening With My Morning Jacket")
* with the Black Keys
Posted by Yonah Korngold at June 24, 2008 05:30 PM
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