September 29 2006: The Mountain Goats - Club Europa, Brooklyn NY

So all those complaints I made regarding the crowd in Boston? The Brooklyn crowd, despite being packed into an awful dance club space, was just about as opposite as things get. They listened politely, shut up during the middle of slow songs, didn't sing along any more than one can realistically expect from a mass of people, and cheered loudly at each song's conclusion.

In fact, the show was one of the best Mountain Goats shows I've ever seen. To start off with, they opened with "Get Lonely," which was a nice change of pace from the other shows I've seen recently, and they did a few songs that were ruined in Cambridge ("Love, Love, Love" and "Color in Your Cheeks"), and a few songs I hadn't heard on this tour thusfar ("Grendel's Mother" for one). And then Franklin Bruno comes on stage! I don't know if he was just in town or if he flew out just to play some music or what, but either way his piano contributed directly to probably the best live performance of "You or Your Memory" I've ever seen, and it made all the more sweet seeing "Song for Lonely Giants" for the first time

And then Eric Friedlander comes on stage, something that those on stage claim has never happened before, and "Dilaudid" is performed with just cello and vocals! And then there is some very nicely performed accompaniment to "Cobra Tattoo" (never seen played before) and "Moon Over Goldsboro" and "In the Hidden Places," all courtesy of Mr. Friedlander. Motherfucker!

And a new tune was played! And "New Year" opened then encore! And Franklin played guitar for "Houseguest" to close the encore! And much good reason for excessive exclamation point usage was provided throughout the night!