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| My Morning Jacket's Jim James @ the Frost Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Described as psychedelic rock country, Kentucky-based My Morning Jacket (MMJ) visited the Bay Area this past Sunday night with a show at the Frost Amphitheater on Stanford's campus in Palo Alto. The band, made up of Jim James (vocals/guitar), Tom Blankenship (bass), Patrick Hallahan (drums), Bo Koster (keyboards), and Carl Broemel (slide/guitar) kicked off the west coast leg of their 2022 tour just a few days earlier in support of last years' self-titled release, My Morning Jacket from Dave Matthews' ATO Records.
If you haven't seen MMJ play live in the past, they put on a great jam-rock show with meandering tracks that often feature Jim's soaring vocals or rambling guitar solos with the band driving a solid base in the background. Sunday night's show was no different, with the Frost about 75-80% full (that's great for a Sunday night show!) and an early start time of 7:35pm for MMJ. Although I was expecting a solid 90-minute show, the band played non-stop for 2 hours and only took a brief break before coming back to the stage to play right up until 10pm.
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| My Morning Jacket's Jim James @ the Frost Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
At one point in the night, Jim James paused to say how much he loves the Bay Area, saying "I used to think about certain parts of the Bay Area as my favorite, but now there are so many places that I can't think of a favorite anymore." Jim also told a story from one of their last Bay Area visits, saying how during that show, someone had left a golden cat at the end of the stage. He loved the cat and when he went to take the cat, the owner of the cat yelled at him saying the cat wasn't his to take. Luckily for Jim, the golden cat returned to the front of the stage at the Frost and Jim was able to pick it up and show the crowd. During his story, most of us in the audience were imagining a real cat, but it was simply a golden cat statue to the relief of some in the audience.
In terms of highlights from their performance, Jim's guitar playing in "Lay Low" was an early highlight for me. This was about an hour into their performance at that point, and the band seemed to be completely in-sync when Jim took off with his guitar. Although not shot from the Frost, here's an example from a fan shot video from another show:
And although my shots aren't representative of the light show that the band employed onstage, I was incredibly impressed with the complex lighting the band engineered on this tour. "In Color" was particularly 'colorful' with the stage lights rotating through the full rainbow of colors to bath the performers in.
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| My Morning Jacket's Jim James @ the Frost Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
I'd also note -- and I'm assuming Jim does this every time they play "Victory Dance" -- but Jim donned a cape for this one. At least I think it was a cape from where I was standing in the crowd. After the song, he took it off before launching into "Love, Love, Love".
Towards the end of the main set, I thought it was great that Jim adjusted the lyrics of "Spring (Among the Living)" from "Among the Living Again" to (at least what sounded like) "I wanna live again, in the Bay Area". Nice touch Jim, nice touch!
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| My Morning Jacket's Carl Broemel @ the Frost Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Overall, MMJ is a great live band and every once in a while I can hear flashes of Ray Manzarek's keyboards from classic Doors tracks like "The End" seeping through MMJ songs. The classic rock vibe is strong with these guys, and I can't argue with the psychedelic country twang that's infused in the DNA of the band. Considering you're going to get at least a 2 hour show from these guys, I'd highly recommend catching them the next time they're here in the Bay!
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