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Story by Brett W. Taylor. As the band evolves, the new experimentation was evident all night. James pulls from an eclectic group of influences: folk, metal, psychedelic jam band, and folksy alt- county. Musically they are adept at combining all of these styles to make My Morning Jacket one of the most entertaining and exciting live rock shows touring. Many of the up-tempo and psychedelic numbers benefited from an expertly produced light and set. The lights seemed to dance and flash in synch with every beat and complicated break during the longer jams. Strobe lights were used to hypnotize the audience only to break right back into the chorus of the song. Despite the lavish light spectacle, singer James truly shines when the group is stripped to the essential ingredient of their sound: his vocals. James voice soars throughout the theatre when singing slower acoustic numbers such as "Sec Walken," or the ode to the bookworm wallflower; "Librarian." A charismatic James sings "take off your glasses and let down your hair for me" highlighted only by a single blue spotlight. Lead guitarist Carl Broemel showed diversity by offering both loud in your face Jimi Hendrix riffs, or adding pedal steel to the acoustic numbers, even evoking Pink Floyd, by providing a saxophone solo to the surreal "Dondante" from 2005's Z. Is the audience on board with this musical mash up? If the balcony at the Riverside is any indication: yes. During the bands funky "Highly Suspicious" from Evil Urges the high energy crowd was dancing so much I could actually feel the balcony bouncing and swaying with the music. It would be hard to find a single song that is such a diversion from the neo-southern reverb rock that defined them a decade ago. In the end, the increasingly attentive crowd was raised to their feet with an exuberant encore of "One Big Holiday" from the bands It Still Moves (2003) album. At that point My Morning Jacket had worked the emotional crowd into a frenzy, leaving the crowd feeling as if they had just seen something truly spectacular. |
Milwaukee Setlist: | |
1 Evil Urges 2 Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt 1 3 Off The Record 5 Dancefloors 6 It Beats 4 U 7 Thank You Too ! 8 Golden 9 Evelyn Is Not Real 10 Sec Walkin 11 Mahgeetah |
12 Lay Low 13 Gideon 14 Dondante 15 Librarian 16 Smokin From Shootin 17 Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt 2 18 Run Thru Encore 19 Wordless Chorus 20 Highly Suspicious 21 Cobra 22 Anytime 23 One Big Holiday |