My Morning Jacket Live Review

“Touch Me I’m Going to Scream” | My Morning Jacket Live Review | Hard Rock Live, Orlando, FL | August 4, 2015

by • August 26, 2015

To see My Morning Jacket live is a truly euphoric experience. There are few bands from the modern era who paint their auditory picture in the fashion of a building-sized mural the way they do. And until one really gets to know the depth of their catalogue, they don’t have the frame of reference to grasp its scope. Warm, soothing emotions emanate lovingly from Jim James’, Carl Broemel’s, and Bo Koster’s voices. The music just has … a vibe, a vibe uniquely pure and relentlessly pleasant. When you hear My Morning Jacket, you just can’t help but feel happy. Serene. At rest. Even when a song is inherently somber, it’s still evokes a positive feeling.

Sadly, in terms of discovering these guys, (who have become one of my absolute favorites) I was late to the party. I had heard of the band several years before one fateful evening in 2010, when I saw an episode of American Dad! which featured them. In the episode, lead character Stan Smith (a CIA agent) overhears My Morning Jacket playing, quits the CIA, and basically becomes a devoted MMJ fan and full-time hippie. Their music transformed him.

The song I heard after seeing the American Dad! episode was “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Pt.2.” From those first few minutes, I knew immediately that I was going to love this band’s music.

After immersing myself in their extensive catalogue (MMJ debuted in 1998), I became a diehard fan. The first time I saw them live was in 2011 while the band was pushing their latest album, Circuital. The show was at Hard Rock Live Orlando and it was easily the best show I’d seen in years.

On Tuesday, August 4th, 2015, they again played Hard Rock Live Orlando. And as expected, they were effortlessly epic. In their own ways, My Morning Jacket is extremely Zeppelin-esque. James’ and Broemel’s smooth, and frequently technical, guitar work intertwines seamlessly with Tom Blankenship’s busy and heavily groove-oriented basslines and Patrick Hallahan’s pocket-filling and complementary drumming. The added layer of synth/keys from Koster rounds out the musical offering to open the door to not-quite-rock sounds and melodies that aren’t concerned with what genre the band is supposed to be playing in. Each song is its own entity. To be at a MMJ show is to take a musical excursion filled with soft lows and brash highs. They really create their own unique brand of psychedelia.

Early on, fans of the critically-acclaimed album, Z, were treated to songs “Off the Record” and “Wordless Chorus,” which have been set staples for ten years now. These are both audience sing-alongs, and the band connected right out of the gates with their upbeat riffs and enchanting vocal hooks.

For those who don’t know, James is considered to be a premier folk singer and is a prominent member of Monsters of Folk. His hauntingly crisp and emotionally packed vocals were on display in the song “Only Memories Remain,” which is one of my favorite tunes off their most recent record, The Waterfall. The live performance of the song is a great example of how their music exudes patience. It builds from a vocal line and minimal instrumentation. Then, very slowly and deliberately, gains in intensity over the course of the nearly 10 minute live rendition. Crooning at its finest.

Another personal favorite from The Waterfall, “Tropics (Erase Traces),” was brought to the live stage with an all-out rock and roll style performance, lots of fingers-trickling-on-the-frets-oriented guitar lines and rhythmically shifting syncopated starts and stops.

Then came the night’s version of “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt.2,” which was not only atmospheric, but with its electronic and synth hooks, gave the impression of what mind-blowing music from the future would sound like. This one “closed” out the end of the set. We all knew it wasn’t over yet.

Now, MMJ fans tend to be quite … well … fanatical. So after a 16 song set of about an hour and forty-five minutes, the people in the room cheered the band on to a five song encore set. A major highlight was Circuital’s “Victory Dance,” which featured a very Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds style dirty-jam vibe combined with amazing lights which emphasized the lyrics “setting sun.” The room filled with a burnt orange lighting making all in attendance feel like they were witnessing an actual sunset.

Another encore fan-favorite was “Holdin On To Black Metal.” According to the band’s Wikipedia page, the song “includes portions of “E-Saew Tam Punha Huajai (Advice Column for Love Troubles Part I),” written by Kwan Jai & Kwan Jit Sriprajan. James used the song as a loop to record the demo. The band subsequently used the loop as a guide when recording the final track. My Morning Jacket basically paid homage to a Siamese artist by musically replicating the music and creating new vocals and lyrics for their American adaptation of the song. And, yeah, the tune grooves pretty hard, so it’s a great part of the live set.

By the end of the night, I left fulfilled and tranquil. There were many members of the Shows I Go To staff and personal friends at the show with me, all of whom felt exactly the same. Every person walking out of the building had a smile on their face and an arm or two around friends or loved ones. When it was all over, the evening was encapsulated by the words “Touch me, I’m going to scream.”

Maybe I owe Seth MacFarlane a “thank-you” for introducing me … 😛

My Morning Jacket Live Review by Josh Jauz, edited by Matthew Weller.

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