Moral of the story: tMG > Sufjan?

Once again the Mountain Goats (and their strong immune systems!) saved the day, and by "the day" I mean June's three-day stay in NY which was wrought by devastation in the form of a cancelled Sufjan performance and a lost pair of gloves. Some notable aspects of their NYU show include:

1. Mr. John Darnielle mumbling the lyrics to Fall Out Boy's "Sugar We're Going Down" (off-mic of course).

2. The lyric switch-up in "The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton"
The top three contenders after weeks of debate were Satan's Fingers, THE HOLD STEADY and the Hospital Bombers

3. John telling the crowd he hates anyone who videotapes performances of new material. Of course he doesn't really hate, he just sorta hates you. (No wait, he really hates you.)


4. The actual performances of new material including the title track to 2008's upcoming "Heretic Pride." We're counting down the grains of sand in the hourglass until February 19.

5. Peter Hughes talking about the Pittsburgh Steeler's football helmet sticker adorning his bass. It came with three other stickers of varying teams from a vending machine, most of which were given away because the did not match the bass.

6. John's t-shirt, which read "Pinklon Thomas."

7. Peter's Etro vest, which we can never get enough of.


8. The Setlist:
1. Cubs in Five (an appetizer, as JD's string broke and had to go back and fix it, leading to a bounty of tunings and jokes.)
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2. Cheshire County
3. Going to Utrecht
4. Old College Try
5. Tallahassee
6. Orange Ball of Hate
7. Heretic Pride (new song premiere)
8. You or Your Memory
9. Palmcorder Yanja
10. Love Cuts the Strings
11. Dance Music
12. Slow West Vultures
13. Love Love Love
14. September 15, 1983 (new song)
15. The Pigs That Marched Straightaway into the Water, Triumph of
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16. Tulsa Imperative
17. Alpha Incipiens
18. The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton

9. How expressive John is, so wild and loud and passionate and Peter is like the stright man in a comedy routine, the one you bounce all the jokes off but he makes them funny. And he stands there with this wide-legged "Rock God" posture in a nice suit.

10. While waiting in line, two girls nearby us were talking and it was one of those things where suddenly everyone goes quiet and all you can hear is the tail end of someone's awkward conversation. This one girl was saying "...and that's when I told him that if he's going to keep masturbating in a glass box, at least I shouldn't have to..." And there was a dead silence before everyone quietly turned to their friend and said "that is SO showing up in Overheard in NY." (to my knowledge, it hasn't so far).

UPDATE 6/16/08: IT DID!!!!!

This is to say, tMG fans are clearly second only to tMG themselves for entertainment value.

the Mountain Goats - The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton (Live - Melbourne, Australia 01/05/07).mp3
the Mountain Goats - Dance Music (Live Bowery Ballroom, NY 10/01/06).mp3