Everyone sings along when frontman John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats belts out, “I hope the people who did you wrong/ have trouble sleeping at night/ People were mean to you but I always thought you were cool/ clicking down the concrete hallways in your spiked heels/ back in high school.” Because those are the people at Mountain Goats shows. If you’re a Mountain Goats fan, there’s a damn good chance you were the girl in spiked heels. Or perhaps you were the loner hanging out against the lockers thinking that she was cool and that the jocks should leave her alone. The probability that you were the kid being mean to her? Pretty low.
And if you were that kid, it was likely because you had a hard-ass stepdad who made your life miserable. At least that’s how I’m choosing to think about my fellow Mountain Goats fans. John Darnielle writes theme songs for the fragile but never broken. These are songs of triumph. Although The Mountain Goats’ song “Hast Though Considered the Tetrapod” was absent from the setlist Sunday night, the sentiment of the song’s final line was not–the line in which Darnielle addresses the difficulty of his abusive stepfather, “Held under these smothering waves by your strong and thick-veined hand,” concluding powerfully, “But one of these days, I’m gonna wriggle up on dry land.” And here we all are, wriggled up on the dry land of the Mohawk, shouting lyrics together.
This kind of anthem for the underrepresented appealed to Sunday’s audience with similarly themed songs like “Dance Music,” about Darnielle’s dysfunctional family and “Up the Wolves,” a hard look at one’s own psychological state, personal history, and internal motives. Of course, Darnielle also includes crowd-pleasing songs about horribly flawed characters of his own creation in “The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton” and “No Children.” The night also unfolds to include a few rarities, like “Sept 19 Triple X Love! Love!” from the band’s second album Sweden, released in 1995. Between songs, Darnielle delves into long diatribes about the gritty romance of watching the early days of professional wrestling on UHF channels or cracks wry jokes: “This is one of those songs about crippling alienation.” Sure, it’s a joke, but he means it.
As one of the most literary and inventive songwriters alive, Darnielle is a hero to me. But even more so, he’s a hero to me because he began by creating wonderfully elaborate stories about dysfunctional people, and ultimately shared his own stories of dysfunction with his fans through songs. The bravery of unpacking one’s own personal traumas in front of a sea of people every night deserves high praise, and it’s certainly a primary reason The Mountain Goats’ fans are so committed.
I’ve never heard the Mohawk so quiet. Austin’s rowdy chatter has been the subject of more than a few posts and articles, but everyone in the Mohawk Sunday night was there for the same reason. Near the end of the show, Darnielle remarks that you can tell an audience by the level of quiet between songs. “And you guys,” he gestures out to the crowd, “A-plus.” At every show, Darnielle gives fans everything he’s got, and we do our best to give it back.
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