ms. yvon

andrew bird: noble beast

(not the album cover, but a cool pic, nonetheless.)

[quote name='bb

i was at that B of A pavillion show, too!

the now playing thread is definitely a great place to see what people in diff. parts o' the country (and world) are listening to.

there are a couple of recent my morning jacket show reviews in teh after the show forum, too.

Welcome, I am just north east of Virginia. A few miles.

wait a minute...i thought you were in ireland? am i confusing you with someone else?

also: hope you dig the board, thisisnowhere! (i also love that album )

been hearing xtc a lot the last few days, so...

"no matter what the weather,

you and the clouds will still be beautiful"

andrew bird: noble beast

it was on my doorstep when i got home last night

thanks, kyle! will check him out!

also: great bit o'news re: his touring with ac.newman.

mart, you can make more room on stage by standing on your stool!

i second bbop's endorsement! hope it's a rollicking good time, mart!

my morning jacket--nye 2008, madison square garden.

not sure where this recording came from, but it sounds terrific!

for me too, tangara!

btw--i saw you a couple times during the night but never caught your eye.

and...i've posted a review of the dec 28th show in after the show...i wrote it while at work. i think i missed some of my favorite small bits. hmm.

night two at the chicago theatre.

on the way to the show with wendy, her two nieces and allison, we listened to a few mmj songs (allison skillfully driving the ipod). we tossed out a few songs we each really wanted to hear that night. turns out we did a pretty good job at writing the set list. hot dog!

my seats were in row mm, but as it turned out, i had a terrific view!

due to some women in the row behind me having a friendship meltdown i ran over to hang with allison for the beginning of the show.

show!

--at dawn--this is a gorgeous way to start a show. we knew it was going to be a different set from most of the tour!

--it beats 4 u--beautiful out of the gate--stage awash in blue lights--TOM OUT!

--evil urges--at the first big drum break the tarp hanging behind the band fell to reveal the big gatefold eye-ring artwork. i missed the drop on sat night. i just looked up at one point and it was gone. (sat night allison commented that she'd visually missed half the show because she was dancing. i do it everytime. )

--i'm amazed--AHHHH!! GOLD LIGHTS! SUN! WOW!--marc's choice of lighting really struck a chord with me on this one.

--gideon--tom lays back!, jim played a new outro where it is usually carl winding down the song. melodic!!!

--wonderful man--rocking big finish

--jim greets crowd--comments on chicago being a land of opportunity...that the designers of the chicago theatre had their brains close to god. (jim commented quite a lot on the theatre interior {it is rounded, lavish and lovely}. he said that they'd been playing in a lot of modern, straight edge, black spaces.)

--golden

--i will sing you songs--!!!--ooh--this is a show stopper in the best possible way. STUNNING! it's like being in a pool, floating in space, wrapped in a heavy blanket and standing in a deep fog all at the same time. gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous!

out comes the omnichord!...

--sooner!--an uptempo version. carl's guitar on this was wonderful! picking and slide. i wrote "pat" here, but i can't remember why. jim rocks the omnichord

--thank you too--the lighting was a blue-green that gave the stage an "undersea" appearance. the side spots were purple. lovely!

--anytime-- IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SET. all bets are off at this point!

--remnants!--first time i've seen them play this one--A BEAST! STROBES! to hear i will sing you songs AND remnants in the same set list is just nuts. that these men can create such ethereal, breathtaking music and then blow the roof off the place 10 minutes later.

well, damn!

--lay low--note re: nice carl spot

--highly suspicious--BIG FUN! at the top of the song the lighting was pink and gold-ahh! as the song progressed it became a light free for all!

--mis-cue here as someone (pat?) started the opening drum track for lay low here. it was quickly squashed and the band launched into...

--off the record

--i think i'm going to hell--FANTASTIC! the stage drenched in red light, carl's slide. damn, damn, damn

--smokin from shootin--the band silhouetted against a gorgeous blue back light with magenta fills. i'm a sucker for the backlighting.

--touch me pt 2--as jim and bo rode out the omnichord/good intentions outro i saw tom and carl take off their guitars, and put different ones on. i turned to the woman next to me (salacious d) and said, "the set's not over!"

--run thru--HOLY HELL OPEN--when you start a song this huge, where do you go from here: MORE HUGE. my notes say: can't dance hard enough!

------------

--look at you--jim solo--moving!

--banter: jim again commenting on the curvy-brain architecture of the chicago theatre interior

--nashville to kentucky--nashville. to kentucky. with carl playing saxophone. SUBLIME. AHHHHH!! soo beautiful! this was the song that killed me, flat out.

--steam engine--GORGEOUS! well, a girl just doesn't stand a chance with these songs back to back.

--COBRA-- ok. if there is one thing to ground you after the emotional wrenching of nashville to kentucky --> steam engine it is some quality booty shaking, head banging to cobra! during the 2nd movement here, carl was on fire!

--wordless!!--by the time we all got to singing out it felt as though the entire show had built to this. WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL!! at the climax of the song jim stood at the edge of center stage with one arm extended, palm open singing.

--one big holiday!!

after the show as people filtered out, mark, a fan i'd met at radio city last june came over to say hello. turns out the couple next to me were posters on the mmj forum. (about 3 songs into the set she commented, "can you believe they opened with "at dawn?!" i was so excited to be next to someone like that at a show! )

--of all the shows i've seen, this may be my favorite set list. so varied. and LOADED with stunners!!

allison found us still at our seats. grinning, she said to me, "you lost your shit, didn't you?" :lol there's something to be said for being an open book.

we found wendy and her nieces and headed over to the elephant and castle for setlist review and hotwings.

man oh man. if this band must head to new zealand and japan for the next two months, i'm glad to have been around to participate in this. as ever, thanks for a fucking fantastic night, gents!

BRILLIANT!!

all the odd vocabulary in harry potter might be tough to get around in a spanish edition.

but a kids' book of some kind is a great idea! (i already know the word for beer, so i won't need that in the book!)

...I'm resolved to acquire fewer books and movies--and aggressively purge the home library. ...and I'm running out of space.

i'm with you, eric. i've been in my apt. about 5 years and have started to outgrow it. since last year i've been incrementally weeding stuff out of it. i don't want to have to move things to get to other things. or move stuff to clean.

it's two fold:

--weed out the excess

--make better use of what i have

and learn spanish. this is the third year i've had this goal.

lou, thanks for the link to the article!

i have a ticket to see a.b. in mid february here in l.a.

last time he played the orpheum, the handsome family toured with him.

[quote name='bb

i finally got around to posting a review of the sat. dec 27th show in "after the show."

was hoping to get the dec 28 review posted today, but have left my notes at home. alas. good for my job, bummer for me.

forgot to mention this was the first show mmj had played since jim j. was injured in his iowa accident. you could see each of the band members getting looser as the show went on.

when off the record started it had a feeling of "getting back on the bicycle". probably just me, but at the end of that song i felt like a weight had been lifted.

*this is a cut and paste of my post on the mmj forum. as ever, the smilies don't translate from board to board, so if you see a weird word in the middle of the post, it is likely an unedited smilie. it was fab to see all the familiar vc peeps at this show, too!

i'm hoping to get a review of the sunday night and nye's shows up this week. not that anyone is looking for them. **

again with the specialness.

now sitting in my friend's apt, green holiday lights illuminating the dining room. freshly showered with a cup of genmaicha tea (from metropolis coffee. oh, how i love them), watching the wind blow the powerlines around outside the window.

the chicago theatre is gorgeous. gilded and baroque and luminous.

there were two new e.u. owl banners hanging behind the stage. i got to my seat a bit early: watched the crew going through their set up, listened to the crowd filing in. when the bears came out, i noticed that pooch was on the left side and the girl bear was on the right. thought, "huh. new places for the bears." about 10 min before the show started, a couple of the techs came out and did a quick bear-position swap.

putting the previous poster's set list in vertical form...

band came out at 8:05, according to wendy.

--evil urges

--touch me pt 1

--otr

--aluminum park

--i'm amazed

--thank you too

--sec walkin

--way he sings--why does my mind blow to bits, indeed.

(at this point some people in the row in front of us left for a few minutes and the very friendly guys in front of us grabbed my hand and pulled me into the front row. he said, "someone should be here while they're gone." thanks for sharing!)

--jim greets the crowd, thanks chicago for all that chicago has given the world, including some mention of balki and "perfect strangers"

--mahgeeta--ARE YOU READY TO GOOOOOOO? jim's guitar looked chrome. crazy shiny. bo was sporting the biggest smile this entire song.

--jim tells crowd he was serious about all that chicago has given the world...

--golden--this was the first time i took a moment to take in the big picture: the band, stage, lights, the crowd.

--where to begin--first suprise of the night: BEAUTIFUL!

--librarian--again, the delicacy of this song in performance is stunning.

--evelyn!!--as the band got ready to play this carl, tom and jim gathered around the drum riser. jim counted out the 1! 2! 1, 2, 3, 4! on his fingers and they launched in. right before the last words of the song the band froze in position...the longer they held their poses, the more the crowd hollered! sometimes at these shows i just laugh from all the momentum and the crowd fervor. fantastic!

--war begun--SWEET JESUS. Shocked wendy asked me if the name of the song was, "oh, fuck!" b/c it was all i could manage to say when they started playing it. Grin --DAMN. wonderful to hear this live!!

(worth mentioning the tennessee fire songs in order moment here...still holding a torch for an appearance of "it's about twilight now" in a show )

--lay low--cape and strobes! quotes of the evening from my friends re: lay low: allison, "i don't know what happened. i couldn't stop dancing."

--phone went west--my note says, "jim, where are you going?"--they opened the song up in the middle. i think the new arrangement disarmed me a bit b/c when they brought the song back around for "THERE'LL BE A KNOCK ON YOUR BACK DOOOOOOR" it broadsided me emotionally. whoof.

--gideon!

--dondante--where didn't this song go?! there is a physical phenomenon with this song: while the music and vocals are blowing your body back, that bass keeps your feet rooted to the spot. kind of fucking fantastic. damn.

--smokin from shootin--build! WHAT ARE YOU WAITIIIIING FOOOOOR? ANYYYYYWAAAAAYYYYYYY!

--touch me pt. 2--DANCE PARTY

-------------

--as the band came out for a few more songs, jim talked about having to cancel the chicago shows last oct. b/c of his accident. said that he wasn't 100% but was feeling pretty good. also said he was disappointed to have not performed the benefit for barack obama at schuba's. more excited words about the election, chicago and obama, then, "Let's do this shit!"

--wordless chorus!--nothing but love coming from the crowd at this point.

--highly suspicious--DANCE PARTY, PT. DEUX!

--anytime!--jesus, these men were throwing down tonight!

(here i got a cramp in my side. and i ate light, dammit! )

--one big holiday.--as patrick started this song the crowd roared.

SO GOOD TO SEE THESE MEN AND THEIR CREW, making music, kicking our boo-tays and filling our hearts.

OH, THIS FEELING IT IS WONDERFUL!

and...it is late and my computer battery is toast for tonight.

hope to see more of you tomorrow!

hey, great to meet you alady!

--on the facial hair front: jim is indeed clean shaven, and carl is sporting a well established moustache.

also: if you saw a couple of women throwing down some funky moves under the heat lamp on the lawrence el platform in the wee hours, it was likely renic and myself.

ahh, wendy, thanks for that link!

GET YOUR BACK UP OFF THE WALL!

DANCE!

C'MON!

INDEED! more to follow when i can find a good source of coffee...

i will be at nye!!

since the sunday show in chicago (HOLY HELL!! ) i've not had a minute to post.

sunday night, was in bed for 3 hours, got 0 hours sleep.

got to new york last night, ordered in, sat on couch.

now making plans for tomorrow!

re: sunday's show: the first thing allison said to me when we met up after the show was, "you lost your shit, didn't you?" nothing like being an open book.

show tonight in chicago!! (

fuck yes. i need to go drink some coffee.

wooooooooot!!@!

aw, lynn. sorry to hear that nels-fish is no longer with you.