Often, a band garners a compliment of being “great” live by playing their instruments with particular skill, carefully recreating intricate soundscapes from their recorded album, or introducing nuanced deviations from original incarnations of songs. However, rarely does seeing a band live reward such a rich and unique experience as with John Darnielle’s Mountain Goats.
Those familiar with the Mountain Goats’ live performances know for a fact that the show will predictably include new, classic, and obscure, older songs, as well as energetic and often hilarious on-stage antics. They also know that the set will include both full band songs and songs performed by Darnielle solo. However, if you’ve been to more than one Mountain Goats show, it’s obvious that no show is the same, with Darnielle acting as emcee and comedian. In recent years, the Mountain Goats have leaned toward a more polished and bigger live sound, recruiting a series of quality drummers and playing more fully arranged versions of songs that were originally just guitar and vocals. This trend has not prevented the trio from delivering those once-sparse numbers to a horde of tried-and-true fans, screaming along.
Since lyrics are a central fixture in the music of the Mountain Goats, the phenomena of borderline hysteric fans is inherently ripe. Even in the most standoffish of scenes (ahem…Austin…we’re looking in your direction), concert-goers will find a throbbing crowd of fans singing along like high school girls at a 1999 Backstreet Boys performance. What differs, however, is the feeling you get deep down inside on this occasion, and that feeling is largely directed by Darnielle’s response. Typically, I witness this kind of occurrence create an embarrassing, awkward dynamic between the too cool for school band along with their snarky hipster fans in contrast with the endearing, earnest fans who are genuinely moved by one of the band’s songs. But as the Austin crowd sang along to almost every song of the band’s January 20th set at Antone’s, Darnielle’s grin broke out proportionally wider with the volume of his fans. Never have I seen a band so enthused by a crowd’s involvement in their show.
The band incorporated four brand new, unreleased songs from a forthcoming album into their set as well as a slew of crowd pleasers (e.g. “See America Right” and “No Children”) and rarer and softer songs such as “Game Shows Touch Our Lives” and “International Small Arms Traffic Blues” before closing the set with the rollicking “This Year” from 2005’s The Sunset Tree.
Seeing the Mountain Goats live is undeniably rewarding for long time fans, but even more importantly, the band’s performances offer a unique and entertaining experience for new or casual listeners.
