2022-10-06 August Hall

Isa Burke, John Darnielle, Matt Douglas, Peter Hughes, Jon Wurster

Setlist

Recording (Taper: Tape & Bake)

• First Blood
• Murder at the 18th St Garage
• Dark In Here
• Guys on Every Corner
• Fresh Tattoo
• Training Montage
• Before I Got There
• Cleaning Crew
• For the Krishnacore Bands (JD solo)
• The Pig Song (JD solo)
• Steal Smoked Fish (JD and Matt duo)
• Harlem Roulette
• San Bernardino
• Woke Up New
• Dance Music
• Getting Into Knives
• Up the Wolves
• Palmcorder Yajna (encore)
• No Children (encore)
• This Year (encore)
• Spent Gladiator 2 (encore)

Banter

• This is a song about how I, unbeknownst to many of you, have guys on every corner. The song is called Guys On Every Corner. (Guys on Every Corner)
• Why, what have we here. [off mic/audience unintelligible] My man, that's correct, to thus, who my friend Peter, and his in ear monitors, I wanna say that one of my faithful, when I say "what have we here" - you heard him? how could you hear him?? what's that? [unintelligible]
  Peter: I heard it with my ears.
  JD: You know why this is called a machine? because of the conspiracy that if I call it a capo [pronounced with a long A] some guy will tell me it's called a capo [short A]. If I call it a capo [short A] the same fellow will tell me it's called a capo [long A]. That's why they came up with the brilliant solution to refer to it as 'the machine'. 'cause nobody's gonna say it's pronounced any way other than 'machine'. (Training Montage)
• Matt Douglas, as you know, I got a whole thing now where I don't bring a set list to the stage. What am I playing now? I love it! We have charades on stage now! Oh wait, but there's two that have that, I'm afraid. Two songs from the new album... [charades and chords are played to much amusement] This song is called... yeah! That's what's up!(Cleaning Crew)
• I love my band and it's always a little melancholy when they leave in the middle. So I try to harness that melancholy and do something useful with it. I'm telling you, people get mad when they start to lose their hearing, but for me, when someone, something that would probably mean something to me if I could understand it, but my ear sells it to me as "Jack Brutal!" that makes me happy. I'd like to dedicate this tune to Jack Brutal. Fuck. I got an idea to play it, and it has a really complicated bridge. [laughing, picking chords out] I think I can do it. I think I can do it. I like to imagine the Mountain Goats fans going "ok, complicated bridge, that means it's no earlier than 2011". (For the Krishnacore Bands)
• You want a story? Well. [inaudible audience] For those of you who like to think about the inside of my brain, what the inside of my brain did there was first it thought about this book that my infant son had when he was an infant, and the books that you give to the infants that are mainly for them to sort of begin circling the general concept of 'book'. So they're like three pages long, and they have something that crinkles inside, because it's a baby. And the baby, my friend Steve a long time ago said, babies are always on acid. You have a copy of the book and the baby's like whoooooooaaaaa. So we got a three page book that crinkles, called Pinky the Pig. And the story of Pinky the Pig, well, I'm still working on my monograph about it, which is called "Toward a Hermeneutics of Pinky the Pig". So that was what I thought about when you asked for a story. Pinky the Pig has three strophes, the first one is big bigger biggest, three pigs in a row, pinky is the smallest, but oh, how he'll grow. red, redder, reddest, three apples in a row - no, three apples ready to eat. pinky has the biggest apple, oh, what a treat. happy, happier, happiest, which pig has the widest smile? pinky of course, he's the happiest by a mile. And I feel the book ends - well yes, I'm not sure we should applaud at Pinky the Pig. I support Pinky in his efforts, but the more I think about Pinky's brethren, the two other buddies whose names we don't even learn, who are denied the biggest apple, and who are explicitly said to be less happy, while pinky, to whom I wish all good things, should be concerned with lifting his brothers up. I'm gonna try to play this, you probably heard it if you went to the solo shows before lockdown, but I've never tried it on guitar. This is sort of the companion piece to 'The Hermeneutics of Pinky The Pig'. (The Pig Song)
• This song commemorates one of the greatest haircuts ever worn by me. (Woke Up New)
• JD: Excuse me. Excuse me, Jon Wurster would like to speak.
  Wurster: I was so into it, I didn't want to stop! [re: previous song, Woke Up New]
  Crowd: [screaming general appreciation for Wurster being great]
  JD: They're getting kinda rowdy! It's those Mountain Goats. (Dance Music)
• I can think of almost nothing I - would less rather do than publish some piece or whatever called "My Favorite Songs Of Mine By John Darnielle". They ask you to do this during the interview season: What are your five favorite songs that you've written featuring the color blue? I don't know. I mainly listen to other people's songs. But if I were to do such a thing, I'm extremely fond of this one. Because it's a spiritual song. It's a spiritual song. (Getting Into Knives)
• We got the word when we were came off stage that we only have 15 minutes, so I gotta not be doing the banter, you know. I gotta cut right to the chase. [band plays a notably faster intro than on other shows this tour] And yet, I wanna tell you that some of you are getting divorced. [cheering] It sounds like fun, now, I know, we all know, I think, I can't wait for my divorce, it's gonna be a blast. Ya know, throw some shit, complain to my friends about it, go get a cocktail. Two cocktails. A pitcher of margaritas. A second pitcher. Some soft pretzels. A bowl of ramen with american cheese. Good hangover food. This is a song that's sort of like, those televangelists who would encourage you to put your hand on the screen in case God was speaking to you. To let the power of the Lord flow through the cathodes. Everyone can enjoy this song, but one or two of you need this song. Friend, is the lord reaching out to you tonight? (No Children)