2022-09-20 Saturn

Setlist

Recording

• Make You Suffer
• Minnesota
• Mark on You
• Cry for Judas
• Corsican Mastiff Stride
• Extraction Point
• Tidal Wave
• Wear Black (JD and Matt duo)
• Going to Malibu (JD solo)
• Neon Orange Glimmer Song (JD solo)
• The Recognition Scene (JD solo)
• Going to Jamaica (JD solo)
• In Memory of Satan
• The Diaz Brothers
• Guys On Every Corner
• Broom People
• Game Shows Touch Our Lives
• Up the Wolves
• Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome
• Let Me Bathe in Demonic Light (encore)
• No Children (encore)
• Southwood Plantation Road (encore)
• Woke Up New (encore)
• This Year (encore)
• Training Montage (encore)

Banter

• This is a song about how you might be having a perfectly nice day, thinking quite highly of yourself and your prospects, and on that day you see me coming, and I put a big old mark on you. It's called Mark on You. (Mark on You)
• Let's say there was a group of people and they set sail for the Mediterranean in search of a peaceful life on some island somewhere away from the madness of the modern world. Let's say they took their dog with them. And let's say when they got there they realized they didn't really know how to garden or farm on their new island, and would not be there for long, as they would soon be found, bleached bones on the shore, possibly being picked over by the same dog. (Corsican Mastiff Stride)
• Audience guy 1: GOING TO MALIBU!
  JD: [starts playing] If you actually know what this song is I'll eat my hat.
  Audience guy 2: golden boy!
  JD: No it's not fucking golden boy what?! [laughs]
  [later in the song, JD forgets the lyrics] I was feeling pretty brave, somebody yelled for Going to Malibu but I have no recollection of the second verse. None. Does someone wanna prompt me. Instead of filming me, use that camera to look up the lyrics.
  [someone bring JD some lyrics, presumably] Of course, it's an early Mountain Goats song, the narrator has an extraordinary dread of the people in his life changing in any way. (Going to Malibu)
• [the sustain pedal is not working] This piano is offering us two choices: permanent sustain, or none. The piano is a metaphorical character in a Mountain Goats song. You can have all of it all the time, or none of it ever. [audience: sustain forever!!] Matt Douglas as a musician is less interested in the theoretical possibilities of the all or nothing position. [poking keys] You remember seeing Peter Pan as a kid? You know how when Tinkerbell dies, you have to believe hard for Tinkerbell to not die? Give your love to sustain pedal, I hope the sustain pedal is trying so hard to [unintelligible]. [sustain pedal works! cheering]
• It's so great to be back in Alabama. This is not an introduction that's pertinent to this song in any way, but it's a state in which union movements are spreading very rapidly right now. [enthused cheering] It's fucking awesome. Unionize absolutely every workspace. Make them fear your power! Because the power is in fact yours.
• (after Up The Wolves) If you hear a better drum fill than that second to last one this month, buy it. [Wurster does a less cool but still pretty cool drum fill]
• Friends, I've got one song left for you, and I don't generally give out advice. But this song does give out advice. Bad advice. [cheering, hell yeahs] And that's everybody's favorite type of advice. I love my guitar. And I love you. Thanks for coming. (Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome)
• There's a thing John Jacobs of the power team used to do. Literally no one knows what I'm talking about. Fellas, I hope you like that groove, 'cause this is gonna take a minute. The power team was a team of Christian evangelicals who pumped iron. they were big strapping fellows with gigantic chests, huge biceps, and they were taking steroids or my name's not John Darnielle, because they were huge. huge dudes. and they did big tent revival type stuff. they would blow up hot water balloons with their lungs, blow them up until they exploded, for Jesus. [cheering] break bricks with their heads for Jesus. It was the 80s. It was a different time. As evangelists, this was their chief skill set. When it came time to actually do the thing evangelists do, which is exetemporaneously and improvisationally explain why the love of Jesus is needed in your life, they were less good at that. So they would break some bricks, but then they had to take the microphone because every evangelist has a deep thirst for the microphone. Don't ask me how I know. But they had a technique that they would use, and it's sort of like, the kind of thing you might learn in a marketing seminar. Instead of saying to you, hey, Birmingham is a nice place, I'd say, don't you know that Birmingham is a nice place? and I've already - I've given you - it's the same thing pickup artists do. I've sort of let you know that you already know something and we agree on it. The single rhetorical trick that the power team had was the phrase 'how many of you know', and they would use it to stall for time. Because they weren't quite sure where they were going in their evangelism. "How many of you know...that John 3:16 says that he...God so loved the world...that he sent his only son Christ Jesus that he might die that you might die but lived? How many of you know that when God said that -" and then there'd be a long pause. But they weould have you already, because you're already supposed to know where they're going, so when they come up with their next line, you're already sort of - you bought in. Unless you go 'nah, not me, I'm not one of the people who know, John Jacobs of the power team.' I mention all of this to you by way of saying this is a fun thing to do. I might ask you, how many of you know [cheering] that when you go to the courthouse you have to dress nice. Because it's supposed to increase your chances with the judge. Maybe he's already predisposed against you. maybe he doesn't like your side of the argument. Maybe he knows somebody who knows you and doesn't like them, but maybe if you wear a nice tie, maybe the judge will be persuaded by your tie. How many of you know that when you need a nice tie you can't seem to find one? How many of you know that your best tie will have a stain on it that morning? [JD starts to sort of sing, getting more and more into it] When you drive up there to the courthouse, how many of you know that you won't find a parking lot with a single space in it, on the morning when you show up to divorce court? how many of you know that you'll be having second thoughts, but it's too late for second thoughts, you're already ankle deep in lawyers fees and they're rising up to your knees? how many of you know that when you leave to the courtroom that day, you'll feel lighter in some ways and heavier in others? how many of you know you're gonna need a song in your heart? this is that song. (No Children)

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