Embarassing Truths:
The first time I listened to one of the lo-fi albums by The Mountain Goats, also known as one John Darnielle, in my car was not unlike the first time I decided to play Brian Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land. Concerning Eno, I found myself frustrated that nothing had happened yet, and began fast-forwarding towards the end of my drive through the tracks to see when things would pick up. Obviously, it has to be building towards something, right? It wasn’t until later, as a late night soundtrack playing softly in the background at home, that I discovered the muted, yet moving majesty of Brian Eno and ambient music. Similarly, a listen to lo-fi had me puzzled as to whether it was my car speakers producing the feedback, or if maybe I just had a bad copy. Eventually, I realized the tape hiss is part of the recording.
Since those early discoveries, ambient has proved a powerful genre, and I’ve seen The Mountain Goats perform twice. The first was a couple years ago with (gasp!) a bassist. The second, however, was part of his Gone Primitive tour with John Vanderslice. Although I certainly love his newer output, so much as to listen more readily than his plethora of earlier material, I understand the purists’ preference of solo performances. Phew. That was more P’s and S’s than most handwritten letters have post-scripts. His solo sets are ripe with immediate potency of fervent guitar strumming and vocals bursting off the page, compared to Brian Eno's self-described 'sharp as a pencil' voice.
March 29, 2009:
The journey to the free show at Kenyon College, performed at the Horn Gallery (more like a barn that is typically used for displaying the students' most-likely pastoral art), was enough to fund lyrics for another Mountain Goats' "Going to..."-style tune. This particular event was in the heart of Amish Ohio. It was a near-three hour drive that turned ugly towards the end with sleet and darkness getting comfortable with the countryside. We took a different route on the way home to discover there really isn't any good way to travel to or from that area, as we passed lighted carriages on the road, towns full of antique stores and even more carriages that appeared to be returning from their dates in popular Amish towns such as Wilmot.
The show was boosted by a collaborative performance between the two men playing some of their shared Moon Colony Bloodbath EP that saw a limited vinyl run during their tour, though it wasn't available when I saw them. The EP is loosely based on a concept surrounding organ harvesting on the moon, which John Darnielle prosed up as expected, and as John Vanderslice previously touted his ability to during his opening set. Stuffed into the 'gallery' like cattle, we watched with utter (or, is that udder? -ah, I hate myself) delight as Darnielle kept to his lyrical guns. He attempted to 'demystify or remystify breakup songs' as he played one of Get Lonely's most uplifting numbers, "Woke Up New". Yet, he quipped, a breakup is like a flesh wound that leaves you without arms or legs, and still technically is a flesh wound.
However, my favorite non-musical moment likely came from a fan exchange, and I've stolen his recollection of the night from his last.fm journal. It was easy to find as he had posted all over the event page.
John Darnielle: (Glancing at setlist written in small notebook) Oh! Good! This one's, um... This one's a song I haven't played for a while, I think you guys'll like it.
Fan: (Standing about ten feet away) It better be 'Song for an Old Friend'.
JD: (Turning, staring directly at him) Well, it's not.
Fan: (Saddened) You're breaking my heart!
JD: That's actually the only reason I came here.
(Pause)
Guy to the left: It's obviously 'Golden Boy'!
SCENE
To their dismay, it wasn't either, but I had a laugh. Now, The Mountain Goats have such an extensive catalogue that I'm unsure how fans can pinpoint the songs he performs at a whim. In fact, in roughly three years since I began using last.fm, The Mountain Goats have become my fifth most-played artist with over 1,500 tracks scrobbled, as they say. There was a week or so that I had spent listening to almost nothing but his albums as I worked my way from the beginning to the end with everything I had. After all of these studies, it still is a challenge to know even a large percentage of the songs by name, or even recognize having heard them before. Granted, I hadn't heard the set opener, but this sort of vast musical expand is certainly beguiling.
The setlist went something like this according to some obsessed fan on a message board somewhere:
"I've Got the Sex"
"Collapsing Stars"
"Dance Music"
"Cobscook Bay"
"Woke Up New"
"How to Embrace a Swamp Creature"
"Minnesota"
"Masher"
"Ontario"
"You or Your Memory"
"Grendel's Mother"
"Cotton"
Craters of the Moon
"Surrounded" (w/ John Vanderslice)
Another New Collab. Song (w/ JV)
"This Year" (w/ JV)
fake-encore of "No Children"
The encore element was stifled by the fact that a barn fails to provide a backstage, so Darnielle feigned ending the set after prompting us he'd do so, only to return declaring, "I've no idea what to play!" I'd regret not hearing fan-favorite "Going to Georgia" if he hadn't played it when I saw him two years ago in decidedly Amish-free Pittsburgh.
I had written the breakup intro from memory, and what I typed as a text draft into my cellphone, but here's a video an audience member recorded:
And, also, the pseudo-encore:
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