Fact: I am a die-hard Mountain Goats fan.
Fact: I listen to at least one Mountain Goats album start to finish about twice a month.
Fact: This was my first Mountain Goats show.
Fact: I knew a total of jack shit about Kaki King before Monday night.
If I weren’t such a busy man, browsing craigslist for the best deals on free Nordic Tracks all day, I would write two reviews for this show, because Kaki King certainly deserves to be judged separately for Monday’s performance. Alas, I need a free Nordic Track in the worst way, so she must share the limelight with the Mountain Goats.
Kaki King, the ATL-bred singer/songwriter/guitar virtuoso, boasted a wonderful performance chock full of progressive indie rock jams and acoustic, finger-pickin’ flurries. There were times during her solo songs that I found myself thinking, “Well, I’ll never be that good at anything I ever do.” Later on during his own set, John Darnielle said something quite similar, confirming that he too realizes he will never come close to achieving King’s technical ability. While her solo, classical-esque tunes were wonderful to experience first-hand, I am left wondering if they were the right choice for the opening act. The aforementioned “indie jams” were much more engaging for an audience who primarily came to see Darnielle belt out tunes of meth addicts and destroyed relationships. Oh well, the solo pieces didn’t spoil anything and, if nothing else, they were fun to watch. All in all, Kaki King is a recommended act.
Onward to the main event! The Mountain Goats! Now, one has to understand that I am somewhat incapable of giving even a remotely unbiased review of this show. Darnielle’s voice is sexual gratification to my ears, and his cadence and lyrical content really speak to the “inner Tighe.” That being said, let me describe what transpired:
Darnielle stepped onto stage, the Showbox went wild. As Darnielle said “hello,” “thank you,” “great to be here,” the decibels became rather intolerable. Darnielle picked up his guitar, and the Showbox began shouting out requests! As the Mountain Goats began their 90 minute set, the Showbox sang almost every single word with him.
I imagine that the crowd would have been able to sing every single work had Darnielle himself been able to remember all the lyrics to all his songs. He would proclaim from time to time, “Alright, let’s see if I can remember this one!” At which point he would start the song and, almost prophetically, drop lyrics from the number. That was one of the great things about seeing someone who has written thousands of songs: you never know what you are going to get. You may get a spot-on version of “Pigs That Ran Straightaway Into The Water, Triumph Of” or you may get a semi complete performace of “Jenny.” You never know!
Later on in the show, Darnielle brought Kaki King back out to perform some tracks from their new collaboration, The Black Pear Tree. During the first song they sang I thought to myself, “Meh…” but had a rapid opinion reversal as they journeyed through the next three or four songs which included a fantastic cover of The Smiths’ “I’m So Sorry.”
The show wrapped up with a great encore that touched songs from my favorite album, All Hail West Texas, and a second encore where Darnielle came out looking a bit flustered and said, “If you want to hear this song, you guys are gonna have to sing it.” And then there it was… “No Children,” the song he hates to sing. Though he did sing it, just not into the mic. I doubt one could have heard a mic’d Darnielle over the sing-a-long crowd anyways, they were as happy as I had seen them all night.
While I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the Mountain Goats, my wonderful partner, who is not a die-hard fan, said she wasn’t that impressed and prefers their studio work. I was shocked but felt it futile to dispute such a claim; I had a great time and that’s all I cared about.
Favorite line of the night:
John Darnielle to a fan who wanted to shake his hand: “Sorry, it’s not you… it’s the germs!”
Second Favorite line:
King to the crowd: “You should buy the poster we have put together at the merch stand… it’s of me… naked… on a bed.”
