March 29 2008: Kathleen Edwards - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

My plan was to head to the Brass Cat to see the Fawns play. Either that or go to the Amity Front's CD release show. But then Lisa called and said she and Drew were outside the Kathleen Edwards gig and some lady had given her an extra ticket for free, and I was third or fourth on the list but no one else was answering their phone on a Saturday night. And I'd been talking with Sweeney about Kathleen Edwards just yesterday, and he said I'd really like her, so I hopped on the bike and headed downtown.

She was great. Great songs, great band, great to look at. What more do you want from an act you've never heard before? My favorite song of the night was one that she played in the encore by herself on an electric mandolin. I have no idea what it was called. But man, was it good. I need to borrow some of her albums from someone.

March 27 2008: Fancy Trash, Barn Burning - Sierra Grille, Northampton MA

We were playing, and so was this band from Providence (Barn Burning) and the Trash. It was fun, not the least because we got free food and all we could drink. Shame I had to be at work at 7am.

Fancy Trash played a bunch of new tunes that I enjoyed. And they were a bit more rocking than usual, cause Josh broke a string on his double bass and borrowed my Jazz for the show. It was a good time.

March 22 2008: The Mountain Goats, the Moaners - Black Cat Mainstage, Washington DC

Washington DC! Anna was there, Ryan and Heather came up for a couple nights, Anna brought a friend who went to George Fox and apparently had a class with me, and we all got there early to grab eight barstools and start the night right with eight shots of the finest cheapest whiskey in the house. And, though those who know me might suspect the following statement to be a lie, I honestly didn't mean to order Heather one. Cause, you know, I'm her friend and I know she doesn't particularly enjoy finest cheapest whiskeys in the same way that some of us do. But it got ordered, and then that was that, and she downed it like a champ. Shit yes. It was that kind of night.

Ryan and I went pretty quick to PBR, cause sometimes you just can't beat $3 pints in plastic cups. And cause that helped Ryan's booze allowance (as dictated by the half of his marriage that brings home a paycheck) slide further than it might have otherwise, and cause I didn't feel the need to get all highbrow when my buddy's drinking Pabst. I forget what Caitlin was drinking, but let's just say she went for PBR too. An all-for-one night it certainly was.

And man, it was fun. Show started with a really great "Michael Myers Resplendent," into "Heretic Pride," into "Quito," on which I'd forgotten how great Peter's backing vocals sound and wow maybe that was the best performance of "Quito" I've ever seen excepting maybe that one time in Chicago, into a great great "Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident," definitely the best of the tour, into "Wild Sage," which I'd call the best of the tour but that song is always so fucking great it's just too hard to tell. Man. Man do I love "Wild Sage."

The acoustic set was four songs long, including a song sung in Spanish that I'd never heard before and for which John had to ask someone in the crowd for help with the words. And the third song was "Elijah," which I'd never heard, and which has generally been and continues to remain one of my all-time favorite Mountain Goats tunes. And he just went right into it, just like that. Not even a second thought. Goddamn. And Caitlin was nice enough to go refill my PBR for me. I'll say it again, Goddamn.

After the acoustic songs, six tunes rounded out the set: "In the Craters on the Moon," "Song for Dennis Brown," "Dilaudid," "Love, Love, Love," "Sept 15 1983," "See America Right." And they were all fabulous, but I think "See America Right" was probably the best I've ever seen it. And I've seen it a lot, and seen it played pretty fucking nicely. Better than that time at Dartmouth? Better than that time in Northampton? Chicago? I think so.

Encore started with "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," loud and fast. Followed by "So Desperate," which I'd not really enjoyed all that much in past sets, but which finally made sense to me. For whatever reason, I'm not sure. Maybe it was just all that cheap beer floating around inside me. Followed by "This Year," which the kids dug. Gotta keep those kids happy.

Second encore was "Palmcorder Yajna" into "California Song." And man, I'll follow a tour any day of the week just to hear them play "California Song" as the last song on the last night. I got joy joy joy in my soul tonight.

And we ordered another round of whiskeys before leaving, and once again we ordered eight, and well, what are you gonna do. You're gonna give the eighth one to Heather and apologize and toast to rock and roll.

March 20 2008: The Mountain Goats, the Moaners - First Unitarian Church Basement, Philadelphia PA

Caitlin and I, after taking the New York Mountain Goats shows off for reasons of schedule but not feeling too bad about it due to an unshakable feeling that they just might be huge rooms of kids unapologetically singing along, hit the road and pointed ourselves in the direction of Philadelphia. A town where I've never seen a bad Mountain Goats show, and where they're generally pretty fucking top notch. And I'd never before spent a night in Philadelphia that didn't involve seeing a Mountain Goats concert, so getting there a day early was fun. We stayed at Caitlin's friend Julie's place, who lives a mile or so south of downtown, where I'd never spent any time, and enjoyed ourselves pretty well at the Royal Tavern a block down.

The next day, day of the show, we showed up at the church at seven, cause our tickets said the show was at eight and we made an assumption regarding door time. Our assumption, however reasonable, was not as reasonable as it could have been. It was windy and really really cold and we stood there, nine-tenths sober, until 815. At which point we walked in. As yet another assumption regarding the show was revealed for the mere assumption that it was: instead of the show happening in the really pretty main hall, the one with pews and stained-glass and chandeliers that's advertised on the church's website, we followed a snake of people into the basement. Where there was a stage set up, and punk-ass kids surrounding it, and big ominous-looking speakers pointed right at us. I totally thought this was going to be a nice sit-down MFA-style gig. I was wrong. Caitlin and I glanced at each other. She worried the kids were only going to get more punk-assier. I turned to Maker's. We were seriously worried there, and the huge crowd growing denser around us every minute didn't help.

However! Show starts and no one pushes us around, and no one starts a mosh pit, and John walks to the microphone and says, "Hi. We're the Mountain Goats." And then he plays "Abide With Me." No Peter, No Wurster. No stupid Led Zeppelin intro music. Just John playing old songs. Songs mostly too old for people to sing along with, half of which I'd never heard before. "Abide With Me" went into "Blueberry Frost," into "Going to Reykjavik," into "Jeff Davis County Blues" (maybe better than the MFA? maybe? goddamn was it nice), into "Blues in Dallas," into "Duke Ellington," into "Song for Dennis Brown," into "Have to Explode." It was a great eight songs. It felt like old times. Hell of a way to start a set.

And then Peter and Wurster came out and they closed with five full-band tunes, finishing the set with "Sept 15, 1983" and "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," which was relatively mellow, vocals wise. I was digging it though. And the encore was a low-key "Babylon Burning," which I wasn't expecting at all and was lots of fun, into "Dance Music," kind of the way they played it in the fall, but slower. Way slower.

The people screamed for a second encore, but they didn't get one. And then we got into a cab, it drove slowly and evenly back to Julie's, and I dreamt about home.

March 15 2008: The Mountain Goats, the Moaners - Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge MA

This was, like I was telling Caitlin as we were eating falafel for dinner, definitely the first time this little round of Mountain Goats that I felt actively excited for the show. So I followed that falafel and excitement up with quite a few Harpoons and enjoyed the hell out of the show. We were able to show up relatively late in the evening (an hour after doors, but still an hour until the Moaners started) and still get ourselves a nice spot with a stair to sit on while we waited and upon which to drink beer, and Peter found us as we were walking in and I was happy to be able to introduce him and Caitlin.

The Moaners, whose full set I finally caught, were great. Caitlin thought so too.

And the Mountain Goats started out the set with "Michael Myers Resplendent" and "Heretic Pride," just like they did in Northampton, but in Northampton they seemed tired and not excited to be playing, and seemed the opposite tonight. Even "Autoclave," which is definitely not my favorite song, sounded great. And the sound at the Middle East was bar none better than at any Mountain Goats show I've been to in the last year. Even that fucking slut who insisted on singing along couldn't ruin things. True story: I ask her if she wouldn't mind to please not sing quite so loudly, asking totally politely, totally thinking to myself, "ok Sohriakoff, don't come on too strong here cause this bitch is liable to insist on screaming in your ear if you sound too much like her dad, whom she most likely lives with cause she's clearly 17." And she looks at me like I'm some creep who's just felt her up on the subway or something, and informs me that she would very much indeed mind, and then leans over to her boyfriend to relate what has just happened. And then the boyfriend, in a tone nowhere near as polite as mine had been, feels the need to note that there is a whole room full of places to stand if I've got a problem with his slut of a girlfriend expressing her beautiful self. Caitlin, referring to this girl after the show, utilized a slang term for vagina that I'm not sure I'd ever heard her use in anger before - and not just once, but at least ten times. She didn't even stop singing after John prefaced "Love, Love, Love" by saying, "Not to tell anybody what to do, but this is another one of those quiet songs. Just so you know, if you paid to get in, that this song is quiet. That's really all I can tell you." But anyway - even that bitch couldn't ruin things. Plus she didn't know the old songs. Slut.

"Wild Sage" was fabulous, the best it's been all tour, and it led into "Sax Rohmer," which I hadn't seen live yet. Which led into the acoustic set, which was started with "Have to Explode," another song I'd never seen before. And "Jeff Davis County Blues" happened again. Man do I love that song.

And the set finished up with the following tunes: "In the Craters on the Moon," "Love, Love, Love," "Sept 15 1983," "Lion's Teeth," "Lovecraft in Brooklyn." It was fantastic. "Craters" and "Sept 15" were the best of the tour, maybe ever. "Lion's Teeth" was fucking ON, and "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" was maybe even as good as that time last year I saw it in St. Louis. Maybe even better. It was fucking nuts.

"Going to Georgia" opened the first encore, full band, and sounded good. I guess I prefer it solo acoustic, but it was fun to hear it with the band. And after "This Year" finished up and the monitor guy started to take microphones down and the lights and house music went up, the people refused to stop clapping and after a few minutes the band came back to do "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton." Good fucking times.

March 14 2008: The Mountain Goats, the Moaners - Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

Big story of the night, far as I'm concerned, was "Jeff Davis County Blues," solo acoustic, halfway through the set. Hadn't seen it live since New York in '06, when some asshole was singing along in my ear. Tonight, though! Tonight! The MFA crowd was as polite as they could be. And like John was just daring them to be assholes, he goes into "Jeff Davis County Blues" to start out the solo set that's apparently SOP these days. And he starts playing the song, and it's ridiculously quiet, and there's not one fucking peep until the final chords are fading away. I couldn't believe it. Not if I saw it with my own eyes. And that was all followed up with "Sign of the Crow," which I really like and had forgotten about, and a cover of a Rodney Crowell tune called "I Ain't Living Long Like This." What a great little string of songs.

"Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident" opened the show, but it definitely lost something with the drums. "New Zion" into "Wild Sage" was really nice, and, as I said to Caitlin afterwards, "that's about the best performance of 'Love, Love, Love' you're most likely ever gonna see." "Lion's Teeth" led into "Sept 15 1983" to close the set, and I was happy.

Caitlin's friend Matt had come out with us, and it was fun to hang out with him and he said he really enjoyed it. And we had these Front of House tickets, which guaranteed us seating in the first three rows of an otherwise GA show, so we were able to watch from right in front of John's face.

And the show was over by 1030 so we finished the night with BBCs at some awful Somerville bar with songs like "Don't Cry" playing as loud as the show had been, watching people play the big game hunting video game. Good times.

March 13 2008: The Mountain Goats, the Moaners - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

So the big news for this show, as far as I was concerned, was not so much that the Mountain Goats were playing half a mile from my house, but that the Mountain Goats were playing half a mile from my house and my band was opening. And amongst the perks of opening a show, aside from free booze and putting your friends on the list, is getting to watch the soundcheck. Which is definitely pretty dull unless you're really fucking into the band that's checking sound and know that, historically speaking, Mountain Goats soundchecks are where all the old and seldom-heard songs get played. And tonight was no exception. Songs that were checked included, in order, "Going to Utrecht," "The Alphonse Mambo," "San Bernardino," "Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident," and "Lovecraft in Brooklyn." Of those, only "Lovecraft" was in the set.

Unfortnately, I didn't catch much of the Moaners due to drinking the afore-mentioned free Harpoons and Heinekens backstage with Drew. But the Mountain Goats came out opening with "Michael Myers Resplendent," which song I really dig. "Heretic Pride" sounded good, and so did "Hast Though Considered the Tetrapod" and "Wild Sage." They didn't sound necessarily great, but they sounded good.

And after about a half-hour the band left the stage and John stuck around to sing some solo tunes, which were pretty appreciated by me after what seemed like a mostly loud-for-loud's-sake set. Amongst others, he did "Ghosts" and "Billy the Kid's Dream of the Magic Shoes," a song which I never really cared much for before but it felt pretty good tonight. And "It Froze Me," which I hadn't seen in a while. I can't remember when I last saw it, but I suspect it was Boston in 2006, when the crowd drowned out John's vocals with their own. It was real nice to hear it listened to and not sung-along to. Yay Northampton!

And after the acoustic interlude, the set finished up with four tunes: "Love, Love, Love," which was nice and subtle and nicely complemented by the drums;"In the Craters on the Moon" and "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," both of which kind of need the drums; and "This Year," which was just a huge singalong and made me wish they'd played something else. I guess I should be glad that the kids want to sing along to "This Year" and not "Sept 15 1983." Cause if anyone had been singing on that one, which opened the encore, I would have lost my shit. That song was amazing. And it was great to hear it now that I know how it sounds on the record. "See America Right" finished up the show. I traded smiles with Adam and was glad he got to hear it again.

And then the show was over and I packed up my shit and went home and had a beer. Not a great Mountain Goats show, but a great night all around.