So there's this band called the Mountain Goats that we've seen, oh well over a dozen times and tend to obsess over a lot. Their latest tour just wrapped up this week at Brooklyn's insanely intimate Bell House. If you failed to see them, well then you truly failed. Here's what you missed:
1. Bare feet! Sometimes musicians like Final Fantasy or Andrew Bird play in their socks, mostly because they have to twiddle lots of knobs and looping pedals with their toes. But John Darnielle deals solely with a guitar making this new development in lack of footwear inexplicably awesome. I read a supposed explanation that it's because Amy Grant does the same thing and JD totally digs her. So that settles that: the freer the feet, the closer to God,
2.An extra member! Perry Wright (of The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers) plays additional guitar adding more bombast than ever before. No word on how permanent his addition to the band will be, but he sure rocked out. Hard.
3. Piano! It's no surprise really given the pretty piano-heavy arrangements of their latest and 17(!) album The Life of the World to Come. And this is no crappy Casio either. It's like for real. And was actually purchased by....
4. Owen Pallett. Mr. Final Fantasy himself couldn't bear to hear the Mountain Goats play on instruments unworthy of their music. What a guy. Oh and he even played violin on certain tracks. His plucky rendition of "Going to Bristol" is brilliant, brilliant I say. Sadly he injured his finger (disassembling said piano the night before the last show of the tour) and thus couldn't play violin for that one concert. I saw his finger up close. It was all icky and purply looking. Here's hoping it heals soon. (The video quality is iffy but the sound is that matters here)
5. Owen Pallett's hair. That boy has locks of wonder. Whether its gelled back or naturally swooping forward, it is always perfectly coiffed. I'd love to have a sleepover with him where we could give each other braids and guacamole facials. After his hand heals of course.
Download the WHOLE Webster Hall show here, courtesy NYCTaper.
04 December 2009
Mountain Goats Tour Recap: Now with bare feet!
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4 comments:
The Bell House show is now available at nyctaper.
Going to Bristol was a big highlight for me when I saw them in Chicago. Just a fabulous show.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to play with Owen Pallett's fun hair, or take him out to one of the big gay dance clubs and twirl around or something. Life is so hard.
I was right in front of JD when that video was recorded. It was fantastical, especially with the chest-whapping.
The Webster Hall and Bell House shows were fantastic. I went for Final Fantasy, as I'm a huge fan, but I enjoyed the Mountain Goats as well. I took some video and am slowly uploading to YouTube (same username over there).
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