{"id":5287,"date":"2011-07-04T23:59:25","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T23:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=5287"},"modified":"2011-07-05T23:56:33","modified_gmt":"2011-07-05T23:56:33","slug":"my-morning-jacket-at-the-santa-barbara-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2011-07\/my-morning-jacket-at-the-santa-barbara-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"My Morning Jacket at the Santa Barbara Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photos by Lefort<\/strong><\/h6>\n

My Morning Jacket<\/strong> came to the Santa Barbara Bowl<\/strong> Saturday and buttoned up the widely held belief that they are amongst the best live bands on the planet.\u00a0 Despite having been on the road incessantly since mid-May in support of their new album, “Circuital<\/strong>,” the Jacket boys<\/strong> dug deep and threw off the ties that hinder and tether, and together with the audience, floated up into the sonic stratosphere.<\/p>\n

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Early on in the set, we briefly sensed the band’s exhaustion (understandable given their set the day before at the High Sierra Music Festival in the hinterlands northwest of Tahoe, and long travel after to Santa Barbara).\u00a0 But they hid their fatigue well and galvanized behind hirsute guises and gazes, all the while gathering energy from the frenzied crowd and hallowed Bowl grounds.<\/p>\n

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As it has throughout its tour, the band opened with Victory Tour<\/strong><\/em> (Circuital’s opener) followed by Circuital<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 The show began to take off with the\u00a0 triumvirate of Off the Record<\/strong><\/em>, Anytime<\/strong><\/em> and Gideon<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The dynamic duo of At Dawn<\/strong><\/em> and Golden<\/strong><\/em> further levitated the crowd.\u00a0 And then I’m Amazed<\/strong><\/em> floored.\u00a0 For the hardcore connoisseurs, they then gave us the semi-obscure, reggae-influenced Phone Went West<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Next up was Dondante, <\/strong><\/em>the brilliant, elegiac ode to a former band member who left this earth too soon.\u00a0 Introducing the song (perhaps in a nod to his passed friend), James said that the International Space Station would be flying over our direct location between 8:57 and 9:01.\u00a0 He was narrowly off when the Station evidently (we missed it) became visible above the Bowl at 9:02.\u00a0 Check the song and Station out below, courtesy of Sonic Ambulance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6uMp1iYGTkU&feature=player_embedded<\/p>\n

Throughout the night Jim James<\/strong> amazed with his ghost-siren vocals and percussive, driving guitar playing.\u00a0 At times he seemed to sing with and to the revenants and spirits of the next world, just to let us in on a glorious vision and the sweetness of his longing.\u00a0 And yet James tapped into the temporal too.\u00a0 He stamped, rocked and repeatedly challenged drummer Patrick Hallahan,<\/strong> multi-instrumentalist Carl Broemel<\/strong>, and bassist Two-Tone Tommy<\/strong> to lift their games.\u00a0 And each time they did, at times seeming to speak in musical tongues.\u00a0 They left no question that in their musical revival tent, the spirits of Marvin Gaye, Joe Strummer, Neil Young (though he thankfully lives and plays on) and Bob Marley are well-channeled.<\/p>\n

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Hallahan deserves special mention as he is simply one of the best rock drummers in the business, playing with relentless drive and aplomb, all the while with his hair flailing and mouth agape (mirrored repeatedly by the slack-jawed audience that surrounded us).\u00a0 And Broemel’s guitar, pedal steel and sax playing provide the perfect complement to the band and music.\u00a0 We were initially unimpressed by Two-Tone Tommy, but it wasn’t long before he came to life, threw off his three-piece suit jacket, and began to dexterously slaughter the bottom line.\u00a0 Bo Coster also added some nice touches on keys and percussion.<\/p>\n

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After Dondante, <\/em>the band killed new crowd-favorite Holdin’ on to Black Metal<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The band was in full drive and the crowd responded by screaming the choruses, providing the best singalong we’ve heard since Arcade Fire’s<\/strong> Wake Up<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0 The one-two of Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2<\/strong><\/em> and crowd-favorite Mahgeeta <\/strong><\/em>euphorically ended the main set.<\/p>\n

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The audience’s hearty, Bowl-shaking effort to bring the band back was rewarded with an energetic encore consisting of Wordless Chorus, Highly Suspicious, <\/strong><\/em>and One Big Holiday. <\/strong><\/em>When James came back onstage he had a cape on, a la James Brown<\/strong>, which he eventually threw off and raced across the stage in abandon, ending in a drop-knee slide across the stage.\u00a0 Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney <\/strong>couldn’t have done it any better, and the crowd went wild.\u00a0 You can check Wordless Chorus<\/em> below.<\/p>\n