Nasal singing, check. Emo crowd, check. Feeling the music in your black heart check. The Mountain Goats at the WOW Hall was a relaxing evening for a warm Wednesday night. John Darnielle opened the set with a solo performance. As he ran up to the stage I hear a young boy in the crowd say “Here he comes!” I noticed this young man was also drawing with crayons the whole time to the music. The lyrics seemed to call the crowd to a stand still, literally.
“I’d like to ask my band to join me,” Danielle proclaimed. As the show continued, the crowd roared out requests, “ONIONS! COTTON! FREE BIRD!” Someone screamed, “Haven’t you heard of a set list!” The basest commented on the crowds requests including, “I want to have your babies.” His sweet banter and demur in his three piece suite reflected his tall and slim geeky persona.
If the Audience were all sitting, like many were, I think the narrative of The Mountain Goats lyrics would have seemed like an old age fable. My 10% Emo really felt like I was personally being sang to with songs like, “I’ll miss you when your gone.” The show seemed short, but sweet for that warm Wednesday night. The encore was by far the most enthusiastic performance. “This Year” was seventeen years young singing to all those angst high school kids and the nostalgic college students like me.
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