Concert Review: My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket

10/29/10 – KFC Yum Center, Louisville, KY
(w/ Louisville Youth Orchestra, and Wax Fang)

So My Morning Jacket does it again. A massive homecoming show that reminds everyone in Louisville, KY the “Just because we haven’t played here in two years, it doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten you.” Friday night they packed out the new arena with thousands of people, and a three hour set that spanned their entire career that consists of fan-favorites with no radio hits.

While the theatrics made for an energetic show – the most dynamic aspect was the way the Louisville Youth Orchestra accented about a third of the band’s set, including songs like “Wordless Chorus”, “Evil Urges”, “Bermuda Highway”, and “The Librarian”.

With the exception of the orchestra’s participation, the first half of the band’s set was bogged down with low energy. They seemed bored and disinterested in being there, it was like spinning tires. However, what they lacked in enthusiasm they made up for in song selection with “Heartbreakin’ Man”, “Golden”, and “I’m Amazed”.

Once they got through the ambient 16 minute snoozefest of “Dondante” the band managed to pick up speed and keep it full-throttle through the rest of the show. From that point on it seemed easy for the guys to barrel through tracks like “Smokin’ from Shootin’”, “Touch Me, I’m Going to Scream (parts 1 & 2)”, “The Librarian”, “Highly Suspicious”, and “Off the Record” with an energetic ease that kept everyone in the room hanging on every note.

The Halloween theatrics were appreciated by the immovable hometown crowd, who has literally watched this band go from coffee shops to last night in front of thousands in their brand new arena. With inflatable black cats on each side of the stage, they returned for their seven song encore all dressed in identical costumes, as fellow Louisville icon Col. Sanders.

It was after midnight when the black, orange, and white balloons fell from the ceiling during the band’s epic swan song, “One Big Holiday” – everyone was exhausted. My Morning Jacket was exhausted, the crowd was exhausted, and the band had once again proven why they don’t need a roster of hits to be one of the biggest bands in the music industry. Because when you sound this good live, everything else seems inconsequential.

New Wax Fang single, "The Astronaut (part 1)"

Here is the new single from Wax Fang. It's called "The Astronaut (part 1)" and it's 17 minutes long! This band is hands down one of our favorites and the song is being released on My Morning Jacket frontman, Jim James' Removadar label!

Wax Fang will be opening for My Morning Jacket, October 29th at KFC Yum Center in Louisville, a hometown show for both bands..

Concert Review: The Eagles in Louisville

Eagles
10/16/10 – K.F.C. Yum Center, Louisville, KY

What it was, was the Eagles. I can almost hear Andy Griffith say it, as I type it. Harkening back to “What it Was, Was Football” where with childlike innocence Griffith described what he was seeing unfold on the field in front of him. That’s kind of what it’s like describing the Eagles’ performance at the K.F.C. Yum Center last night – there’s naïve amazement in observing something so simple and yet so astonishing.

And if the Eagles know anything it’s what their audience wants from a show. They want hits. They want impeccable sound. And they want the band to be flawless. All of which they deliver – night after night after night. High energy and theatrics seem like the devices of lesser-bands to these guys. And I’m fairly certain that this band hasn’t hit a wrong note onstage since 1973 (believe me, I was there and it wasn’t pretty). When you’re that technically proficient – everything else on the stage seem extraneous.

Needless to say, their stage show at the opening of K.F.C. Yum Center was minimal. Lights and a screen was all they needed to appease the packed house from beginning to end.

They opened the 3+ hour show with the acapella intro to their classic “7 Bridges Road”. After that they dedicated the first fifteen to twenty minutes of both the nigtht’s sets to new material off their latest album “Long Road Out of Eden”. Once they got past the transitory “new material” that’s when things got real…real classic rock, that is.

There was hardly a song from the band’s two top selling Greatest Hits albums that didn’t get played. The setlist was endless and you can probably guess what it included – “Lyin’ Eyes”, “Hotel California”, “Love Will Keep Us Alive”, “Heartache Tonight”, “Take It Easy”, “Desperado”, etc., etc., etc. While you’re hardly surprised by what they play these days, it is hard believe unless you see it for yourself, exactly how perfectly the four voices of Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Timothy B. Schmit, and Joe Walsh have held up over all these years. Logic and reason would dictate that after this many decades on the road, they shouldn’t sound nearly as good as they do.

There was something beautifully poetic as the entire house, packed shoulder-to-shoulder from floor to rafters, collectively offered their voices as back-up on the refrain to “Take It to the Limit”. A breath taking moment that ceremoniously broke the proverbial champagne bottle against the hull of our new arena.

The band seemed most energized when tearing through the members’ pre-and-post Eagles catalogs. Henley meandered around solo hits like: “Boys of Summer”, “Dirty Laundry”, and “All She Wants to do is Dance”. While Walsh snuck up late in the show and stole the whole damn thing by tearing through his post-Eagles hits like “Rocky Mountain Way” and “Life’s Been Good” – as well as classics from his pre-Eagles, James Gang days like “Walk Away” and “Funk #49”.

Clearly the audience was doe-eyed and high on finally being inside the newest addition to Louisville’s skyline – which seemed to leave them a little A.D.D. much of the time. If the band wasn’t onstage (or was playing new material) many members of the crowd were milling around, gawking at the city’s new toy. Overall for the first event in the venue, it ran smoothly, staff was courteous, and they only had the most minimal of problems getting people in-and-out of the place.

Now onto the next show…as we eagerly anticipate hometown rockers My Morning Jacket coming through to rip shit up. –Brent Owen

Just found this while searching content for the previous post. It's Wax Fang performing "My Old Kentucky Home" with Jim James of My Morning Jacket. Both being Kentucky bred bands, this version of their state song is particularly poignant.



See both My Morning Jacket and Wax Fang when they play together October 29th, in Louisville, KY @ The Yum Arena w/ The Louisville Youth Orchestra.

Purple Fang

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through to this thing called life…” singer/guitarist Scott Carney began, as he opened Wax Fang’s encore performance of Prince’s Purple Rain album last night at Zanzabar.

Wax Fang is a band that is certainly more talented and more likable than they probably know, and if nothing else they proved that last night. The very idea of them performing the album in its entirety was enough to get the local music scene abuzz when it was announced they would play it after Thunder Over Louisville on April 17^th.

That show went so well, and so many missed it, thankfully the guys rehashed the performance last night so a few more lucky souls could catch it.

Musically speaking, Wax Fang with the help of Dave Cronin on keyboards, and multi-instrumentalist/back-up vocalist D.W. Box, did a fairly true to form, and straight forward performance of the nine songs that make up Prince’s 1984 masterpiece.

From the spoken word intro to “Let’s Go Crazy” all the way through to the raucous finale of the song “Purple Rain” (their version of which is so near perfection it’s almost a painful listen) the group was in top form. Their renditions of “Take Me With U”, “Darling Nikki”, and “I Would Die 4 U” really let the band spread their wings enough to put their own spin on these classic songs, while staying true The Purple One’s original vision.

Now, Wax Fang doing a brilliant musical performance is hardly surprising to anyone who’s ever seen these guys before; however, I must say the costumes did take me by surprise. The band was decked out with each member playing their corresponding role in the original line-up of Prince & The Revolution. Carney of course wore Prince’s trademark purple tuxedo and floppy ruffled shirt of the era – while drummer Kevin Ratterman dressed in drag as Sheila E. Their period wigs and fake mustaches just added a cheeky sense of the absurd that made the performance of such timeless music seem all the more surreal.

If you want to see Wax Fang (“Princed-out” or not) they will be in England for the entire month of May celebrating the UK release of their phenomenal La La Land on May 10^th. The album will also be getting a US vinyl release on May 11^th through Absolutely Kosher Records.