You can never get bored of watching My Morning Jacket. Whether it’s having a set that encompasses five of their six studio albums, each album taking a new creative direction from the last. Or watching a frontman like Jim James who, when he hasn’t got a towel on his head, or hiding beneath a cape, can howl like a wolf as well as move his feet to the solid grooves his band create. Or even when the fire alarm goes off during their fourth track, ‘I’m Amazed’, as it did during this show. There is never a dull moment.
After opening their set with in a typically loud and heavy fashion with ‘Victory Dance’ and ‘First Light’ from their latest offering ‘Circuital’, they waltzed into ‘Off the Record’ before the alarm began to sound half way through ‘I’m Amazed’. With the lights on and the PA off, the band kept playing through their amps unaware of what was happening around them.
Following a swift visit from London Fire Brigade the crowd were allowed back into the venue and the set reconvened as planned with Jim James promising “They’re going to allow us to play the rest of our set in full’, much to the crowds delight.
With the green eye from the ‘Circuital’ album cover shining from behind them, they gently eased back into their set with ‘It Beats for You’ and the beautiful ‘At Dawn’. Many highlights ensued included the experimental, psychedelic ‘Dondante’ which could have lasted forever without anyone getting bored.
As the evening drew to a close the band were joined on stage by boho, all-girl, alt choir group Gaggle for ‘Wordless’ and their biggest hit to date ‘Holdin’ onto Black Metal’. Jim James described the group as ‘’vigilantes for justice” that would “fuck you up”.
All in all, the guys from Kentucky provided exactly what was needed: psychedelic, spaced out, Americana, rock and roll. Not many other bands out there that can claim to have that much in their arsenal.
Words by Matt Goodwin