Concert Review – The Mountain Goats – Granada Theater, Dallas, TX 11/19/09

That’s a wordy title, I’ll work on that. 

 

Anyways, just got back from a MOST excellent show from The Mountain Goats.  What I thought was going to be a disaster, (as I’m only familiar with two of their albums, and a third, which I’ve only heard once, I didn’t care much for) turned out to be one of the greatest live performances I’ve yet seen.  Rock slightly infused with folk, I didn’t expect it to get as loud as it did with just acoustic guitars (and bass and drums of course) but they pounded it out.  The Mountain Goats, headed by John Darnielle, have completely won me over to their work, and I shall be checking more out in future.  The highlight of the show had to be Darnielle’s constant “stories” about the “meanings” behind each of the songs.  The clear winner was the story for “Thank you Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle“, which tells the tragic tale that many gamers are probably familiar with, about what occurs when one reaches the end of the first Mario Bros. game.  I’d been waiting a while to hear this song, as I expected it to be something special, but I never expected what I ended up hearing.  The studio version doesn’t quite live up to its live incarnation, but it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard.  Hands down.  Other highlights included Owen Pallett from the band Final Fantasy joining the band on stage twice, first to play violin for a few tracks, and then again at the very end to play piano on what ended up being a 90% crowd-sung “No Children”.

 

There’s more I could say, but I’m still in that post-concert rush, and I think I’m rambling right now.