MMJ

Last night, as you might have suspected, confirmed not just that My Morning Jacket is tops in a live setting, but that they don't seem to have any real competition among the bands I've seen. I mean, the Arcade Fire were pretty great, and I think I remember how great, but it's just not a fair fight.

Also, I recalled how much better I like listening to recorded songs when I have the live version in my head to compare. I can't decide whether it's the memory or whether I'm actually re-hearing the more powerful live version of, for example, "Mahgeetah" when I listen to It Still Moves, but it works whatever it is.

Thus, I'm excited to listen to Z again after last night. I think they played almost the whole record, starting out with the entire first half, replacing "Gideon" with "One Big Holiday". Luckily they played "Gideon" later on, and individually it was probably the highlight of the new material, though "Dondante" was better in context. "Wordless Chorus" was highlighted by Jim James not just hitting the high notes, but completely ignoring pitch and wailing at the top of his voice as high as he could, three steps higher or so than what you get on the record (which seems to be the case with the entirety of "The Way That He Sings" lately). In case you mistake this for a bad thing, it was a perfect example of the onstage exuberance that so immediately draws in even novice listeners at their shows.

I must admit, though, that after the end of "Off the Record" I was getting tired of the loud, upbeat songs, worried that I'd go home slightly disappointed. They finished the main set with "Lay Low," "Dondante" and a mindblowing version of "Run Thru". Though it reminded me that I wish they'd done the same with "Gideon," and maybe they will someday, that section just about killed me. Until they get dark and spaced out and manage to sound like their playing from a deep pit of despair, the ecstatic highs of "What a Wonderful Man," for example, can't be put in proper perspective. From the saxophone on "Dondante" to the crushing middle of "Run Thru," it was almost a little bit scary to watch everyone on stage either closing their eyes, staring at the ground, or near-screaming into the mic, almost like they'd emotionally imploded since the joyful beginning of the show. The dirty fuzz-bass line that announces the triumphant second half of the song sent the audience, except for Charles, into ecstasy, culminating in intermittently erupting applause until they finally crawled across the finish line.

Then they returned for an encore of "Lowdown", "Anytime", a song that barely resembled the original "Pictures of You", and, of course, "Mahgeetah".

Oh, and if I put together my bandemonium from last year as a mixtape, I'll try to post it, though the upload will be long and tedious.