Fresh Cherries from Yakima

“so, this was a song i wrote in a hotel room in denver, when i was having a really hard time,” john darnielle started from the stage as he introduced a song from his recently-released the life of the world to come record. “so, i did what i always do: i write a song about someone who is having a much harder time than me.” and no greater truth has been said of the work of john darnielle; the nucleus of the mountain goats has a tough time letting the characters of his near-500-song catalog off easy. darnielle’s characters have seen their houses burn down, been dragged through the streets in transfiguration scenes, and have shivered themselves to sleep. one thing that makes darnielle my favorite songwriter of all-time is the amount of empathy he has for these characters, most of them perpetual fuck-ups of the highest degree: you can tell he feels something for them, not only in his reedy, pinched, and nasally vocals, but also on the lyric sheet. in a live setting, this empathy turns into enthusiasm, as darnielle, clad in a suit along with the rest of his band (it’s notable that peter hughes, longtime bassist for the band, is always the best-dressed member of the band), was also wearing an infectious grin that gave the peculiarly diverse audience tangible evidence of his heart.

owen pallett of final fantasy stepped onstage with his violin, draped in a seemingly acid-washed dress, and immediately went into one of his most well-loved songs, “this is the dream of win and regine,” plucking and bowing his instrument as he stepped on looping pedals to re-create the compositions he has written (let’s not forget that pallett is more than a mere “musician,” he is a composer, as well). after the opening number, pallett brought a young fellow by the name of louis onstage, who served as the drummer and guitarist. pallett and louis then played through a round of tunes, sufficiently tackling every point of pallett’s solo work, including a new song from the forthcoming heartland LP. the first time i saw final fantasy live was opening for bloc party in 2007, and it was apparent from this show that although an act like final fantasy would fare a little better in the swank, seated confines of the triple door, pallett’s idiosyncratic, violin-led pop is a much better fit for a band like the mountain goats than one man and a looping pedal trying to play to a packed house of teenagers who heard “i still remember” on the radio. all in all, it was one in the ‘win’ column for an excellent act i’ve been following for almost half of the decade.

the mountain goats’ set was divided into three distinct parts: ‘full-band part number one,’ ‘john solo part,’ and ‘full-band part number two.’ the former was naturally peppered with songs from the life of the world to come, with older 4AD material like “letters from belgium” rounding out the proceedings. “if you take the greyhound– or trailways, whatever– south about six hours or so, you’ll end up at the station in portland,” darnielle started, probably forgetting (since he’s spent time in portland) that the city is only a three-hour drive away, tops, “and sometimes, when you’re down in portland, you think to yourself, ‘i’m gonna get high.’ this is a song about portland and getting high.” the band then went into a rousing version of “cotton,” volume swelling to soaring heights during the choruses. an early highlight was “hast thou considered the tetrapod,” which, given my history with child abuse, always rings a particularly resonant chord with me.

soon after the rest of the members of the mountain goats stepped offstage, darnielle struck a G-chord, and temporarily abandoned the setlist to play old favorite “orange ball of peace,” which hit a real sweet spot with fans of the goats’ pre-4AD work. later in darnielle’s solo portion of the set, he remarked, “this one is from an album that it seemed like everybody hated. and it’s personally my favorite record, because it’s the type of record that people always apologize to me for, like, ‘man. i bought that record, and i hated it, man. and i told all my friends i hated it, and then i had a bad day that week, and realized, well, this record ain’t so bad.’ and so, here’s the one song people liked from that record.” darnielle then launched into “woke up new,” from the excellent-but-sometimes-hitting-too-close-to-the-bone get lonely. owen pallett then joined darnielle onstage for a couple of songs, most notably another old favorite, “going to bristol”, with pallett on violin and darnielle on vocals.

when the rest of the band rejoined darnielle and pallett onstage, the crowd was at a fever pitch. after a few more songs with pallett on violin, things really started to get jumping with the band’s final five-song, two-encore run. this started with an anthemic version of “against pollution,” which sounded like the mountain goats covering a hold steady version of a mountain goats song to thrilling effect, with everyone singing along to the lyrics: “a year ago i worked at a liquor store/and a guy came in/tried to kill me, so i shot him in the face/I WOULD DO IT AGAIN, I WOULD DO IT AGAIN”. the second song was perpetual set-closer, “this year,” which gets everyone amped by the chorus. after leaving the stage, the goats returned to play crowd favorite and full-throated singalong “no children,” with darnielle not even standing behind the mic during part of the first verse and the choruses, letting the adoring crowd do the work for him. and we didn’t mind at all. toward the end of the song, a kid jumped onstage and jumped off, prompting darnielle to go into a clever diatribe: “wow. that was our very first stage diver. that kid felt like me when i go to an indie-rock show; i’m always like, ‘yeah, man. i’m gonna do it. i’m gonna stage-dive. and then, i realize, these people aren’t gonna fucking catch me! i’m just going to jump down and land on the floor.” then, after extolling the virtues of moshing, darnielle and the band went into other crowd favorite “the best ever death metal band in denton,” where everyone– as always– screamed “HAIL SATAN” at the top of their lungs during the song’s climactic finish. the band left the stage a second time, and returned to play the rather-fitting (you know, for a touring band) “see america right,” complete with darnielle leaving the stage and the rest of the band sending the song to a thunderous end.

then, before we realized what happened, the four men onstage were taking a bow to a packed house of adoration. it’s only right, given the amount of giddy enthusiasm that emanates from darnielle when he plays, that the excitement is returned back to him.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 10:46 pm and is filed under mountain goats superfandom, live review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.