Oh, the cathartic joy of a Mountain Goats show. Let’s be honest—the Mountain Goats, whether recorded or live, simply aren’t for everyone. Highly literate, dark, comedic acoustic pop built on the most ferociously nasal vocals you’ve ever heard simply isn’t going appeal to all music aficionados. But that has never stopped me from claiming them as my favorite band.
With the band eschewing the importance of “good” vocals and emphasizing words, it’s no surprise that the entire crowd chants the lyrics to almost every song in unison. Normally, this
is the most annoying a crowd can be at a show, but there’s something about the Mountain Goats that makes it okay. Maybe it’s the fact that you feel like there’s finally someone standing next to you that loves this quirky pop as much as you, since it’s such a niche market. Maybe it’s lead singer John Darnielle beaming down at everyone, clearly enthralled with the fact that his fans love the music so much. There’s no awkward nonchalance, only enthusiastic affection for the adoring fans.
It always catches me off guard how widely I involuntarily grin when Darnielle rattles off his classic introduction: an incredibly fast burst of the words, “Hi! We’re the Mountain Goats!” It used to be funny when the “we” was applied to the one-man project, and it’s as endearing as ever now, with a three piece that often solicits the help of various musicians live and recorded.
However, it’s not only the number of members that has evolved over the years. Darnielle has taken the Mountain Goats from a 4-track bedroom recording project to something of a musician’s band. First, he’s accompanied by excellent bassist Peter Hughes and drummer extraordinaire Jon Wurster. Along with adding brass sections for the first time, Darnielle’s chord progressions and selection of notes have also become more complex in recent albums. Most of the songs he selects are culled from these newer albums and include highlights like “Never Quite Free” from All Eternal’s Deck and “Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1” and “Cry for Judas” from his most recent Transcendental Youth. He does, of course, reach into the back catalog for a few songs like “Absolute Lithops Effect” from All Hail West Texas and “First Few Desperate Hours” from Tallahassee. Though, if I’m honest, I can call every song a highlight, and my favorite is probably “Up the Wolves” from The Sunset Tree.
But the best thing about the Mountain Goats live might be Darnielle’s stage banter that comes off like sordid stand-up. At one point, he delves into what might be, without exaggeration, the longest period of talking between songs I’ve ever seen from a band. The story revolves around Lon Chaney Jr., his father’s films, Jr.’s inability to live up to those films, and the projection of his real life failures onto his character in the 1956 film The Indestructible Man. The purpose for this story is that it is essentially the subject matter for the song “Rotten Stinking Mouthpiece,” which is a line borrowed from the film.
Darnielle tells other stories, too—about his two-year-old son, about Scarface, but the one that really sticks with me centers on his conflicted relationship with his abusive stepfather. Fittingly, as Darnielle describes his stepfather’s death, it’s a complex mixture of dark comedy and the relief of being forever free from an abuser and the guilt and sadness that comes from the death of one who raised you. With the complex emotions and ugly truths wrapped in a dark comic delivery, nothing more aptly embodies the music Darnielle has made over the years.
I gave up a long time ago on trying to convert those who just won’t ever see the greatness of the Mountain Goats. For those of you out there who get it, there’s almost no point in telling you, but I’ll say it anyway. Darnielle is one of our greatest songwriters, and his live show offers a memorable and emotionally powerful experience. Thank you, Mr. Darnielle, for continuing to make records and tour the country to share with us the songs from them.
