2023-10-28 Longhorn Ballroom
Notes
John Darnielle, Matt Douglas, Peter Hughes, Kyle Leonard (saxophone, Cry for Judas and Foreign Object), Jon Wurster
Setlist
Recording (Taper: ezralite23)
Banter
- This is a cowboy tune. (Dark In Here)
- Okay, I might be taking baby steps towards writing contemporary Christian music. [one person shrieks in what is presumably delight, audience laughs and cheers] I'm starting with the titles. This is called Only One Way. [song] I just hope somebody's taping on the night I remember the correct verse order on that one. Like when the Dead busted out Dark Star after 5 years of [unintelligible] - yeah! he got them all in order! it was amazing! (Only One Way)
- I had a neighbor in the building where I was writing these songs. Karen, I hope you're doing alright. (Prana Ferox)
- One of the funniest things that happens when someone thinks they're going to get a request across is - it's beautiful, something will catch fire. This person yells one thing, this person yells another, someone yells for This Year in the middle of the show. And then somebody yells for one, and somebody else, you can feel it, goes, oh, yeah! That one! And they say the same thing, and it ping-pongs like that, and it's beautiful, and I wanna respect that beauty by just letting it lie there. And not actually playing the song. (From TG & Y)
- JD: Not used to sitting on this stool (unintelligible). Adjust my expectations. I feel like drummers live in luxury and comfort now. Piano is kinda punishing. [JD and Wurster laugh] I gotta learn to play the drums! The least physically demanding of jobs!
Wurster: I mean, I just sit back here all night. (Cleaning Crew)
- Fellas, should this one have a long, slow, like, drift (?), contemplative intro so that everybody thinks, like 'they can do a slow jam now'? [slow jams are played] Maybe they think it's a little country. And just when they're starting to feel relaxed, putting down their fourth whiskey of the evening, ready to lull into the sweet sound of the last fall copy from japan (?) just run it behind them and grab 'em by the neck. (First Blood)
- I don't want to single the person out who I think is my favorite person in the world right now. But the reason that I started to laugh in the middle of this otherwise pretty grim song is when I got to the line about 'bound at the ankles and wrists', a friendly person over here looked up and held up her wrists. And you may or may not know that the Mountain Goats went global last year with a TikTok trend [woo!] you may see the next one that's - this is like that, but with the murder of a person and disposal of their body. You rule for that, thank you so much.
Peter: The Mountain Goats Tik Tok Sit Tight Challenge. [raucous laughter, ba dum tss from Wurster]
JD: I don't admin our TikTok, that would be gauche, I have all these dumb ideas, but music business managers really like TikTok because a lot of people use it. When something like that happens, I guarantee my manager will be awake 16 hours a day like "reblogging another one of those TikToks, John". (Water Tower)
- Jon Wurster and I share this thing where if we do one thing that's cool somewhere then it becomes tradition even if it hasn't happened a second time yet. There are very few stages where you can play in this country that the Sex Pistols have stood on. [cheering, drumming] But this is one of them. This song is by the Sex Pistols. (Holidays in the Sun)
- Peter, I thought about it, not for very long, I think we're - Jon Wurster, funny song first or sad? [yelling] The consensus is sad. (Cry For Judas)
- You don't cut out people. People say to me, well, you tell these stories, John, but when are you really going to share your most intimate feelings? When are you really gonna get real with it and tell us how you feel about something, really get into your emotions? Matt, you know what they say, if you bottle up your emotions sooner or later they're, they'll all come to getcha, you gotta let 'em out. So I sat down one day, I gotta do this thing, I have to get real with people, I have to get real with myself. I have to tell them the truth. About how one day, one day in the very near future, I am gonna stab you. I'm gonna stab you. (Foreign Object)
- [crowd starts chanting Hail Satan] I know you wanna hail Satan, but I want you to consider the equally religious space of the lawyer's office [some guy boos]. Oh, you hail Satan for kicks on Friday but come Monday morning at the lawyer's office, you will petition the God in whom you do not believe for a little relief. Just a break. You won't be asking for eveyrthing you want. Not even any of the things you want. Just, just, half an hour more sleep than you had last night. Once you get through this. Just for the headache to stop. But it's not that God has abandoned you in these times, it's that he's angry with you, and seeks to teach you a lesson. And you never seem to learn it. So he has to bring out the big guns. Loss. And doubt. And momentary panic, that's really one of the more powerful spiritual weapons. You know, watching a tv show about something to distract yourself, seems to be working really well, til Bolt of Panic. What will I be doing this time next week. I don't know. I don't know. It's all kind of a blur. Until the divorce goes through. (No Children)
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