2013-05-29 KEXP (Seattle)
Setlist
This was a JD solo show. Recording
Banter
I had a dozen emails like, John, don't forget your guitar, it's in the van, don't forget the guitar when you fly from Salt Lake City. I'd like to thank KEXP for supplying me with a guitar....My guitar is in the van. [tuning] Not quite, not quite. I've become greatly emboldened in tuning by becoming a fan of The Grateful Dead, because those guys could tune guitars, man, they would sit in front of an audience of a bunch of people who paid to get in and just tune those things for half an hour. I used to get all nervous, but then you get into The Dead and it's like no, they're just standing there, standing there tuning their guitars. People not knowing what to do. Very inspirational. (Isaiah 45:23)
I'm laughing because often, when there's a whole crowd of people who like, they're all there for the Mountain Goats show, for that last chorus [of Woke Up New], I'll often drop out. Stop playing and we can all sing it without instrumentation. But I thought, playing on a stage outdoors, probably a lot of people here who don't know who you are or what you're yelling about, so maybe don't do that part. But my hand went, no, we get a break now, and it totally was like, we don't do this part anymore. You made me do it back when, but now I get to rest. It totally was rebelling, my hand, it was like Evil Dead 2. So there is a thing in wrestling called a battle royale. It's called a battle royale because kings used to do it, is a thing that royalty would do, get into a wrestling ring and struggle. BUt now it's done for profit instead. The battle royale is 12 to 18 wrestlers all in the ring at once, and they all start fighting, and somehow, instead of total chaos, it all goes pretty smoothly. They, one after another, they go out over the top rope, until only a few remain, and then those ones fight it out for supremacy. And it's a heavy, heavy drama. This is about a battle royale and it's also about the labor and delivery room. (Animal Mask)
This song is old as dirt. (Love Cuts the Strings)
In an interesting or not interesting bit of technique trivia, that's the first time that song [Love Cuts the Strings] has successfully been played with a pick, because I didn't used to ever play with a pick, and I harshly judged those who did. Then you tour a lot, and you start beating the living God out of your hand, and you say, oh, there's 10 more nights of these, maybe the guys with a pick have a point. And so. But these old songs, usually they're like this [strums aggressively without a pick] and that's hard to do when you're holding onto something with your two fingers. Thus ends this extraordinarily fascinating disposition on technique. (Love Cuts the Strings)