| I FINALLY SAW THE MOUNTAIN GOATS! AND IT WAS AWESOME! |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|06:13 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  ecstatic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Mountain Goats- Southwood Plantation Row | ] |
Readers digest version:
I saw The Mountain Goats perform WITH NO MICROPHONE in a tiny cabaret theatre with fewer than 75 people in it, at 2 in the afternoon, sitting a row behind Steve Albini's (hot) wife, after watching tons of Improv one row in front of John Darnielle. And it was all for charity. Best day of ditching work ever? I think yes. I LOVE CHICAGO!
More detailed version:
So every year, at Second City (which is the premier improv/comedy theatre, pretty much in the world as basically every classic member of SNL and other comedian from the last 40-50 some odd years trained there, including: Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Chris Farley, Eugene Levy, etc. etc. etc.), Steve Albini (guy who produced albums like: Doolittle, In Utero, and a bajillion other underground and not so underground classics) hosts a charity benefit concert/auction/improv event, WHEREIN:
Second City members do Improvisational comedy for 24 straight hours interspersed with performances from fucking awesome musicians.
This year they had the likes of:
Jeff Tweedy (from Wilco)
Nina Nastasia
Bonnie Prince Billy
And of course THE MOUNTAIN GOATS.
The deal with this thing is: it's $15 and you can only buy tickets at the door. Furthermore, seating is on a first come first serve basis. So buying a ticket doesn't guarantee you a seat per say.
So, after I saw The Flaming Lips and Phoenix on Friday night (PS: I DID THAT!), I thought to myself "What other of my favorite bands have I regretfully NEVER SEEN LIVE?" and Then "THE MOUNTAIN GOATS" popped into my mind. So Sunday night I checked their tour dates and sure enough, Chicago Being the awesome fucking city that it is, The Mountain Goats were playing Second City on Wednesday.
So, I ditched work today, rolled into Second City at 11am. Watched about 2 hours of wonderful Improv (which included TJ from TJ & DAVE who are a famous Chicago Improv duo who Just fucking SLAY. If you've seen the Sonic Commercials? He's in those).
At this point there were maybe 30 people present. At some point during the improv performance, I turn around and see that John Darnielle is sitting a row behind me and quietly freak out.
At some point or another we make eye contact. I didn't go up and talk to him because that's quite rude to do during a performance, especially one that he was clearly enjoying.
Steve Albini was also walking around.
So, mid-afternoon John Darnielle takes the stage, with NO MICROPHONE, to a room of 75ish people and fuckin ROCKS.
Plays some really obscure songs. Many of which I honestly hadn't even heard.
He has SO much stage presence it's absurd. Just a fuckin JOY to watch. There were clearly people who had NO IDEA who the Mountain Goats were, and he won them over pretty instantly.
He is a definite must-see performer.
At some point or another he starts taking requests for money for the charity (Rumor has it: Jeff Tweedy raised over $7k by taking requests last night, on top of the $100k he raised by donating 4 private performances in bidder's homes. Confirming once again that Jeff Tweedy is a STAND UP human being).
I saw people pay $100 for "Southwood Plantation Row" and "Up The Wolves" and a bunch of obscure songs off a bunch of obscure EPs.
And then at some point in the middle of the set, he decides that he is SO impressed with the Improvising going on, that he is going to do something ballsy and IMPROVISE A SONG ON THE SPOT.
He asks the audience for a place:
Your childhood bathroom.
Something that would be in the place:
toothpaste.
The age of the character:
75 (I gave that one!!!!!!)
And right there, the dude improvised a song.
And it was a legitimately fucking amazing song that will likely never be heard again. But it sincerely blew my mind.
I don't know how this guy comes up with the images he comes up with so readily, but god-motherfucking-damn, he is a genius.
The song was about some old man, on the verge of death, returning to his childhood home, reading hurtful letters from an ex-lover as he cleaned the grime from his teeth.
No joke: He made that shit up on the spot.
After that, he sang a song accapella.
It was a pretty amazing show. Perhaps slightly brief for my tastes as I could've watched that guy do anything for hours on end.
But it was a helluva way to finally experience The Mountain Goats live. |
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| Ira's top 15ish Personal Favorite Albums of 2009: |
[Dec. 9th, 2009|10:44 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | geeky | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest | ] |
Honorable Mentions:
The Horrors- Primary Colors
Passion Pit- Manners
15. The Big Pink- A Brief History Of Love
14. The Veils- Sun Gangs
13. Bat For Lashes- Two Suns
12. Slow Club- Yeah So
11. Cymbals Eat Guitars- Why There Are Mountains
10. The xx-xx
9. Rural Alberta Advantage- Hometowns
8. Mountain Goats- Life Of The World To Come
7. Neko Case- Middle Cyclone
6. Dirty Projectors- Bitte Orca
5. Japandroids- Post Nothing
4. Phoenix- Wolfgang Amedeus Phoenix
3. Animal Collective- Merriwether Post Pavillion
2. Pains Of Being Pure @ Heart-s/t
AND IRA'S FAVORITE ALBUM OF THE YEAR IS:
1. Sunset Rubdown- Dragonslayer
I'm also well aware of the fact that I left Grizzly Bear, St. Vincent and Flaming lips off this list. Frankly, I need more time to digest those records. Not an intentional diss. |
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