October 27 2005: The Mountain Goats, The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers – Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

Got to enjoy dinner with an old friend before the show, saw a great show, and then had the most pleasant conversation I’ve had with a particular ex-girlfriend in over a year. Boston treated me well. Perry later told me that in his estimation the Boston gig was the high point for the Prayers and Tears. I thought they played well, but their performance of “Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy” left much of the audience wondering what the hell to make of them. And I think Perry felt it too, as he seemed to be trying to make up for the overtly Christian nature of the song by swearing a lot immediately afterwards. The strategy worked about as well as it could have, but that song put a bit of a chip on the audience’s shoulder for the rest of their performance.

The Mountain Goats played great, opening with “Twin Human Highway Flares,” which is probably about as perfect an opener for a seated show as is humanly possible. Other than that, it was just a great set – a band on the last leg of the last tour of a very long year, flawlessly performing but coming off just a tad sterile in the vacuum of the MFA auditorium. But that makes the show sound boring – and it was a fabulous show, with probably the best performances all tour of many of the quieter numbers such as the afore mentioned opener, “Tallahassee” and “Shadow Song.” And it did have flat out more “Full Force Galesburg” tunes than any other show. And for the closing numbers David’s guitar was down in the mix and Alex’s keyboard up, making for an interesting listen. It was all just a bit generic. Maybe just because I was a little nervous about seeing the ex-girlfriend after the show. Maybe just because the last few shows had been so very raucous (in a good way) and I’d gotten pleasantly used to that. Maybe just because I hadn’t had anything to drink since 6pm.