I Hope The Worst Isn't Over

I love me The Mountain Goats, especially seeing them live. Why, do you ask? Well, let me tell you - in a meandering post kind of way. I'm punchy today, watch it...

As I've told a large number of people (and if you've been lucky enough to avoid this rant in the past, well your luck has run out), John Darnielle, the lead singer/songwriter is a man with a miraculous ability to throw out his passion and his emotions, unreserved and seemingly unashamed. I have yet to see another performer put themselves out there on such a true, true level. And I can see where this could seem like a downer, like a show that could become maudlin any second, but it simply does not happen. The guy is so into what he's doing that he roils with a holy fire, and he happened to choose to put a guitar and microphone in front to catch it and put it out there.

This sort of in the moment, emotional truthfulness allows an instant in for those witnessing the show, if you want in. I believe that if you come away from a Mountain Goats show unmoved, than you are dead inside.

I'm only kidding, you're just stupid.

After the show, I was reminiscing about shows from years ago, where he would sit on a stool, just him and his acoustic guitar. He would play the shit out of things and tell these great, hilarious, rambling stories like the kid in school who would start over-talking with that nervous and stumbling gait when put on the spot. He used to have no set list, would often just ask the crowd what they wanted to hear. It was like a VH1 Storytellers, that show where someone like Hall and Oates would come play acoustic numbers and talk about where the song came from, except it didn't suck.

John Darnielle is sort of like the ultimate geeky fanboy (much like his fans, much like me), and he's totally okay with it. He wore a homemade shirt that had the name of a boxer he loved, and then told one of his great sort of stand up stories about the man when someone asked about the shirt, all the while the bass player changed John's broken string. In a song preamble he mentioned that said song was so old it was from when he was putting out tapes, effectively beating the other fanboys to their bragging rights of listening to the band since he was putting out tapes. He attempted to perfect his "Pete Townsend jump" on stage, actually telling us that's what he was doing; and while it was funny, you knew it was absolutely true.

I don't know what else I can say. The guy's music just hits me directly, slaps me around something fierce, leaves me feeling like my soul has been released, refilled and reaffirmed. I'm happy to be able to share this time with the man, happy that I found out about him.