John Darnielle – 2006-08-21
August 22nd, 2006The thing about an artist who is personable and charismatic is that every fan wants to be his friend. Everyone wants to make that special connection and be remembered by him. I understand. Everyone wants to be loved.
John Darnielle did an in-store performance last night at Easy Street Records to kick off the release of The Mountain Goats’ latest album Get Lonely. In between every song he would treat the crowd to a little story or anecdote about the song or something completely unrelated to music and in between every song it seemed like someone in the crowd would shout something out to him. He didn’t seem to mind that people wanted to participate in his performance but I got tired of it fairly quickly. It got kinda bad when this one guy in the front wouldn’t stop trying to converse with him and the people in the crowd told him, in no uncertain terms, to “shut the fuck up”. I also had one of the giddiest fanboys next to my mics so every time John made any kind of joke you will hear this high pitched giggle as he bursts out in lady-like laughter. Seriously, this guy thought John Darnielle was the funniest man alive.
And, to be fair, he’s pretty funny. He paces his sentences in the same manner that Mitch Hedberg did; sort of oddly accentuating certain phrases or words. He gets more excited and boisterous than Hedberg ever did, though.
In addition to being funny, he’s a damn fine songwriter. I’ve never really listened to The Mountain Goats before but now that I’ve seen John play live, I’m more inclined to check them out than I was before. His songs are sincere and straight-forward and sort of remind me of Ben Gibbard (and I know Mountain Goats fans would crucify me for saying that but whatever).
The recording itself turned out nice. It’s very hard to tape in-stores at Easy Street because they usually book acoustic acts and it’s never very loud. In the case of John Darnielle, he would go from near-silent to really-fucking-loud within one song so it was hard to guage the levels. The audience cheers clip like hell but I don’t care. The actual music sounds fine and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
John Darnielle – 2006-08-21 Easy Street Records – Seattle, WA
Download: jdarnielle2006-08-21.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: jdarnielle2006-08-21sample.mp3
August 22nd, 2006 at 4:44 PM
OUTSTANDING review Brian and thanks for taping the show. As always you’re always the first one to post the show so it will be fun to hear the performance again.
I too was going to yell something, but chickened out when the mob rule almost took that one fella to the wood shed. Plus the song was a cover of one of the goats songs he already played (Going to Georgia) after the first set of interruptions and he switched from playing a new song to an old once since he lost his ‘momentum’.
It’s great seeing you at Easy Street and hope next time I can chat with you for a while. I have a few questions for you about the MicroTrack if you don’t mind a few minutes of tech advice.
Thanks!!
MOUTAIN GOATS ROCK!
August 22nd, 2006 at 5:21 PM
Yeah totally. I’d be down for hangin’ out and talkin’. Thanks for suggesting this show to me. I really enjoyed it.
August 23rd, 2006 at 9:40 AM
Damn, I’m really glad you taped this. I caught a John Darnielle solo show at Athens Popfest a couple weeks ago and I was just blown away at how enthusiastic both he and the crowd were. Like you, I’d not really listened to TMG much prior to the show, but the first thing I did when I got home was listen my little heart out. Just an outstanding show. Looking forward to hearing this one. Thanks a bunch.
August 24th, 2006 at 9:28 AM
Thanks very much for sharing this, Brian.
Henkin
August 27th, 2006 at 9:19 PM
Wow, thanks for taping this. I really wanted to go but I was at the Showbox that night and taped Frog Eyes and Wolf Parade instead which turned out pretty amazing.
Are you going to tape Muse at the Paramount in October? I’ve never been there before. any tips on getting equipment in?
August 9th, 2013 at 5:56 AM
This is so good thank you for putting this up. i love John he’s amazing.