2021-08-06 Orange Peel (Asheville, NC)
This was the first show since February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the first show after the release of Dark in Here, Getting Into Knives, and Songs for Pierre Chuvin. Erin McKeown joined the band for this tour and absolutely shredded. The energy is barely contained feral.
Setlist
Recording
Banter
- JD: I had an office. Like my first ever office. After The Sunset Tree came out, I said, ah, things are getting busy, I should have an office to write some songs in. This is a long story, those of you who haven't been here before, the stories do tend to stretch a liuttle bit. So, I live in Durham North Carolina, I've been there for, close to 20 years, it's been a minute now. At the time, Durham was not a place people were moving to. Now, developers from upstate New York own like half of it. Developers from Cincinnati own the other half.
Peter: Yeah, blame it on upstate New York. That's who's taking over.
JD: It is.
Peter: It's upstate.
JD: It's actually Westchester County, to be fair. Which to me, counts as upstate, because I don't know New York from Adam. But before that, Durham was, y'know, the downtown was half empty, all these empty buildings, and you could get office space on the cheap. I met a guy who ran a printing press, my friend Dave, who was looking for a place to get into this old science building that wasn't used anymore. Dave's deal when founding this office, Dave is a guy who likes to plan. This will shock you, but I'm a guy who doesn't plan a whole lot. I have to be taught to do that. He wanted to talk about the parameters of the office, whether to put a window here or here, and I was like, I don't care, let's just get in the building and we can talk about that later. So we did that. And I got the back office, it didn't have a window. It was way in the back corner and didn't have a window or any other outside light coming in. I had one fluorescent light above me and a wooden table, and a tape deck and no internet access. That is the room in which I wrote this song. (Sax Rohmer #1)
- "This was on All Eternals Deck. I think people should use songs for whatever they want to use them for, but every so often I meet someone who considers this a very hopeful song, and I go, 'cool'. I mean it is called, never quite free. I thought I put it up there in the title, but, hey. Stay out of the results, as they say." (Never Quite Free)
- It is incredibly special to be up here with you. I can't. I imagine the same is true for people in the audience - for me, and I know for my band, the amount of anticipation is - I'm not given to fantasies of fame, that's not my style. I like to fantasize about, y'know, being eaten by a monster from outer space or something. We all have our things. But over the past year or so, I've found myself dreaming, daydreaming - and this is a strange thing, because under normal times, we're out 4 or 5 months a year. I do not daydream about getting back out, because usually it's going to be 4 weeks from now. And over the past 6, 7, 8 months, it's what if we could stand up and sing Mountain Goats songs! And I expect to say this a lot over the next few weeks, but you all held us up during this time and we will never forget it. And by way of saying thanks, I'd like to do the other thing that I sometimes do in solo sets, which is play something you haven't heard. No way in hell you've heard it. It's not a happy song. And all the people in it are real, but I want to send it out to the person in the second verse, Brad, the first person who ever addressed me by feminine pronouns without asking me. He called me Miss John all the days of his life. (Stack 'Em Up)
- This is a song about how sometimes you gotta wear your lizard suit to the party. It's called....lizard suit. (Lizard Suit)
- This is a song about great religious piety. (The Diaz Brothers)
- This is kinda my favorite one. Not for noble reasons. It's just a really mean song. But it sounds nice, it sounds like it's a mellow kinda fireside jam, hanging around by the fire together, friends, or family, and thinking about who you wanna kill. (Getting into Knives)
- JD: You look absolutely beautiful in your masks. I have a mask fetish so I'm completely losing it up here. Completely fucking out of my mind.
Peter: This whole pandemic thing's been really good for you, huh?
JD: I can't say it's been good but I've been walking around in a constant state of agitation.
Peter: [laughs]
JD: This is not actually true, just to hedge this bet, this is just a joke, but the worst thing would be maybe if you were [garbled] by the eyes, and then everyone had to wear blindfolds, oh fuck.
- It's been two years that, for the sake of our own mental health, you have to bottle the rage up a little bit. There are plenty of people who are richly deserving of it. All the prophets have very stern words for leaders of nations who don't take care of their people. For the unwise leader, Jeremiah and Isaiah have very strong words indeed. But when it actually comes time, you have to pick your battles. You can't be sitting around simmering with rage all day. Or can you? But in the event that you need an outlet for it, well, in 2001, on a plane from Des Moines to Tallahassee, I got an idea, and I wrote a song, this was that song. I'm told it's occasionally useful. (No Children)
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