It was song number three on John's last CD
Last night I saw my tenth Mountain Goats show, and my third in a row with my hardcore Mountain Goats fans Cristin and Maggie, as well as Marisa, Craig, and Michelle repping for Ardsley High. As Darnielle pointed out when he talked about pulling up to the venue and thinking "another year, another show at the Bowery Ballroom," the Mountain Goats actually haven't played Bowery in some years. I think the last time I saw them there was on my birthday in 2006.
That 2006 show was the first of two different weekends where I saw the Mountain Goats and the Hold Steady on consecutive nights (the other was in 2008, when Rob came to visit), but last night's show was the first time I saw them kinda-sorta simultaneously, for however brief a moment. I was delighted enough when Darnielle made reference to Craig Finn's "so much joy" spiel towards the end of the show; I was not expecting him to then bring out Craig Finn to trade verses on "This Year" (adding "and it almost killed me!" to the final chorus). So that happened, and do I need to say that it was amazing? Ardsley Craig made a note to, next time he sees Hold Steady Craig at the YMCA in Greenpoint, suggest that he bring Darnielle out to sing at that upcoming Terminal 5 Hold Steady gig (I would make note to do the same, but I never see either Craig at the YMCA, just my buddy Will from elementary school).
At any Mountain Goats show, there will be songs I don't really know, but I'm getting better. Except for the new All Eternals Deck stuff, which I only faintly recognized (save "Damn These Vampires") from a single NPR streaming listen, and the Silkworm cover, I knew pretty much everything they played, though not always by name. This is at least the second or third time I've had to go home and go through All Hail West Texas and figure out which one isn't called "dream about home" but kind of should be. "Jeff Davis County Blues," why does your title always elude me? Also, anytime they play anything from Full Force Galesburg, I pretty much assume it's going to be "Weekend in Western Illinois" and it almost never is, even though the rest of that record is also great -- and the full-band versions of songs from that record are sometimes even better.
I was also excited to hear "You Were Cool," which I've previously had to resort to listening to on YouTube (I think that is how Darnielle linked to it off Twitter, and I wasn't able to find an mp3, although granted, I probably wasn't doing very good detective work). Also, "Going to Port Washington" may be the "going to" song I've heard the most in concert, which is fine because it's great and actually I think I love that song from first hearing it in concert. But: they also played "Going to Georgia." Cross that off the list. "Cubs in Five" remains, but actually, I'm kind of fine with not hearing them do "Cubs in Five" as I'm kind of fine with withholding satisfaction from people who lobby incessantly for "Cubs in Five."
Speaking of which: oh, Mountain Goats fans. I understand that the worst ten percent of fans of any band will not do any favors to the reputation of fans in general, and in fact I generally agree with Maggie's observation that people at these shows seem really nice, at least compared to some of the gnarlier-looking fanbases out there (I didn't think of it at the time, which is weird because it's the only non-Mountain Goats show I've seen with Maggie, but: the Dead Weather! No one really particularly bothered me at that show, but it was definitely a mangier crowd [of similarly white people]). But Mountain Goats fans sure do like to call out requests, from obscurities to super-obvious songs and everything in between, with the common ground that they are inevitably calling out something that it would make no sense to play at that moment for one reason or another (the default reason: because taking crowd requests should happen maybe once a show, if that).
There was also a guy next to me who carried on loud conversations with his loud entourage of ladies, often unrelated to the show but sometimes full of drunken wistful missing of "old Mountain Goats" (with accompanying: "this is the good shit" when they played a song before 2002). Here is the suggestion I initially proposed to Marisa and Craig on the cab ride back to Greenpoint: If you find yourself pining for "old Mountain Goats," rather than spending $25 to see the Mountain Goats in 2011, put that money toward a time machine fund. Once you've raised the cash and built that time machine, you can go back to 1998 or where-ever and go to shows there. Then you can see "old Mountain Goats" and I never have to stand next to you ever again.
But! A few chatterboxes or a few (or a jillion) stupid yell-out requests can't spoil this:
Liza Forever Minnelli
Southwood Plantation Road
Broom People
Birth of Serpents
Estate Sale Sign
Seeing Daylight
Going to Port Washington
High Hawk Season
Dilaudid
You Were Cool
Outer Scorpion Squadron
Jeff Davis County Blues
Prowl Great Cain
Minnesota
Family Happiness
Damn These Vampires
Elijah
This Year
---
Baboon
Going to Georgia
Ontario
No Children
---
Plain (Silkworm cover)
Palmcorder Yajna
I'm usually tempted to see the Mountain Goats multiple times on a tour, usually because they'll play multiple nights in NYC (they're doing Bowery tonight and tomorrow), but this time I'm actually doing it: Marisa and I are going to Philly in a couple of weeks to catch them with Bayard and Alex. Hail Satan!
That 2006 show was the first of two different weekends where I saw the Mountain Goats and the Hold Steady on consecutive nights (the other was in 2008, when Rob came to visit), but last night's show was the first time I saw them kinda-sorta simultaneously, for however brief a moment. I was delighted enough when Darnielle made reference to Craig Finn's "so much joy" spiel towards the end of the show; I was not expecting him to then bring out Craig Finn to trade verses on "This Year" (adding "and it almost killed me!" to the final chorus). So that happened, and do I need to say that it was amazing? Ardsley Craig made a note to, next time he sees Hold Steady Craig at the YMCA in Greenpoint, suggest that he bring Darnielle out to sing at that upcoming Terminal 5 Hold Steady gig (I would make note to do the same, but I never see either Craig at the YMCA, just my buddy Will from elementary school).
At any Mountain Goats show, there will be songs I don't really know, but I'm getting better. Except for the new All Eternals Deck stuff, which I only faintly recognized (save "Damn These Vampires") from a single NPR streaming listen, and the Silkworm cover, I knew pretty much everything they played, though not always by name. This is at least the second or third time I've had to go home and go through All Hail West Texas and figure out which one isn't called "dream about home" but kind of should be. "Jeff Davis County Blues," why does your title always elude me? Also, anytime they play anything from Full Force Galesburg, I pretty much assume it's going to be "Weekend in Western Illinois" and it almost never is, even though the rest of that record is also great -- and the full-band versions of songs from that record are sometimes even better.
I was also excited to hear "You Were Cool," which I've previously had to resort to listening to on YouTube (I think that is how Darnielle linked to it off Twitter, and I wasn't able to find an mp3, although granted, I probably wasn't doing very good detective work). Also, "Going to Port Washington" may be the "going to" song I've heard the most in concert, which is fine because it's great and actually I think I love that song from first hearing it in concert. But: they also played "Going to Georgia." Cross that off the list. "Cubs in Five" remains, but actually, I'm kind of fine with not hearing them do "Cubs in Five" as I'm kind of fine with withholding satisfaction from people who lobby incessantly for "Cubs in Five."
Speaking of which: oh, Mountain Goats fans. I understand that the worst ten percent of fans of any band will not do any favors to the reputation of fans in general, and in fact I generally agree with Maggie's observation that people at these shows seem really nice, at least compared to some of the gnarlier-looking fanbases out there (I didn't think of it at the time, which is weird because it's the only non-Mountain Goats show I've seen with Maggie, but: the Dead Weather! No one really particularly bothered me at that show, but it was definitely a mangier crowd [of similarly white people]). But Mountain Goats fans sure do like to call out requests, from obscurities to super-obvious songs and everything in between, with the common ground that they are inevitably calling out something that it would make no sense to play at that moment for one reason or another (the default reason: because taking crowd requests should happen maybe once a show, if that).
There was also a guy next to me who carried on loud conversations with his loud entourage of ladies, often unrelated to the show but sometimes full of drunken wistful missing of "old Mountain Goats" (with accompanying: "this is the good shit" when they played a song before 2002). Here is the suggestion I initially proposed to Marisa and Craig on the cab ride back to Greenpoint: If you find yourself pining for "old Mountain Goats," rather than spending $25 to see the Mountain Goats in 2011, put that money toward a time machine fund. Once you've raised the cash and built that time machine, you can go back to 1998 or where-ever and go to shows there. Then you can see "old Mountain Goats" and I never have to stand next to you ever again.
But! A few chatterboxes or a few (or a jillion) stupid yell-out requests can't spoil this:
Liza Forever Minnelli
Southwood Plantation Road
Broom People
Birth of Serpents
Estate Sale Sign
Seeing Daylight
Going to Port Washington
High Hawk Season
Dilaudid
You Were Cool
Outer Scorpion Squadron
Jeff Davis County Blues
Prowl Great Cain
Minnesota
Family Happiness
Damn These Vampires
Elijah
This Year
---
Baboon
Going to Georgia
Ontario
No Children
---
Plain (Silkworm cover)
Palmcorder Yajna
I'm usually tempted to see the Mountain Goats multiple times on a tour, usually because they'll play multiple nights in NYC (they're doing Bowery tonight and tomorrow), but this time I'm actually doing it: Marisa and I are going to Philly in a couple of weeks to catch them with Bayard and Alex. Hail Satan!