I’m still a little bit in the afterglow from last night’s Mountain Goats concert at the Black Cat, but I figured it was worth trying to write about it while it’s still fresh.The Mountain Goats is (are?) really John Darnielle, along with his longtime collaborator1 Peter Hughes, and their current tour drummer, Jon Wurster.

What’s astonishing about Darnielle is not just the quality (and quantity) of his songwriting, but the emotional honesty that shines through so brightly. Much of the early tMG material was somewhat militantly lo-fi — recorded on the built-in mic of a cassette boombox — and you know the raw material and performance has got something special if it survives that treatment.  

Last night was my first tMG concert, and it was, quite simply, amazing. They played a lot of both new and old material2 and I was utterly enthralled the entire time. Darnielle was so visibly connected to everything he was playing and singing, it was not a performance so much as… raw expression, communication. 

There was an added emotional intensity to the evening as Darnielle mentioned he has been having serious health issues,  to the point that they have had to cancel the rest of the tour. So when he sang “I am going to make it through this year if it kills me” it felt that much more personal and meaningful.

There were so many fantastic songs throughout the night that I won’t bother trying to talk about them; if you don’t know the songs it’d be pretty boring anyway. But the very, very last song, the last encore, though new to me, was my unequivocal favorite. John sang solo — no guitar, just Peter’s sparse bass underscoring. It’s a simple, beautiful little song, and his singing was clearly so heartfelt. It touched me deeply. A fine farewell. Get well soon, John.

california song 
I know you see mars in the sky tonight
I know you can see venus rising and veering off to the right.
but can you see that young star overhead?
it’s the one that designed my undoing.
I know that in california the waves break on the beach.
and I know that the foam on the breaking waves is as white as household bleach.
but do you see that particular white right now
it’s the color of the young star coming on down.
I got joy joy joy in my soul tonight
I got joy joy joy in my arms alright.
although you treat me badly,
I love you madly.
you really got a hold on me.
you really got a hold on me.

  1. He plays a lot of instruments, but on tour it’s just bass. [↩]
  2. With something like 500 released songs, there’s a lot to choose from. [↩]