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.