John Darnielle possesses the writer’s gift of universality. From his very specific songs come truths that touch the hearts of listeners who have never lived his life. You may never have felt the humiliation of being a burned out tweaker, sweating it out in a dingy hotel room, but you understand what it means to feel you’re at rock bottom. You know what it is to be dumb and wild and free. You know what it is to desperately, desperately, survive a year that hasn’t gone the way you hoped. In John’s quirky new songs about wrestling from Beat the Champ there are classic themes about underdogs and alienation, themes that you don’t need to wear a mask to understand. The Mountain Goats built their fervent fan base not on the strength of riffs but on words. Listening to Darnielle’s stories, feeling the emotions he projects, his heart becomes your heart; his trials, yours.

The Mountain Goats played NYC shows on this tour both at Webster Hall and two nights at City Winery, in lieu of a single large show at Terminal 5 or a similar venue. For that, we can be grateful, as City Winery — where as John said, he could actually see the back of the venue from the stage — vibed perfectly with what he wanted. For this tour, the regular trio of Darnielle, Jon Wurster and Peter Hughes is joined by the NC-based journeyman and Swiss army knife of a musician Matt Douglas, who has now appeared on this site with three different bands, if you count his solo show. The addition of Douglas on sax, guitar, horns and keys adds welcome texture and complexity to the full-band numbers, and takes some pressure off of Darnielle, whose massive catalog is always a challenge on tour. The intimate room amplified the songs’ emotional heft; it was a joy to see the rather well-heeled crowd of (probably) former nerds, geeks and rejects sing along to one of Darnielle’s most approachable verses:

people were mean to you

but i always thought you were cool

clicking down the concrete hallways

in your spiked heels

back in high school

That’s Darnielle’s magic, distilled: A song about a single person that many of us could see in ourselves, even if what made us different had nothing to do with spiked heels. If proof were ever needed of the value of being yourself, Darnielle and his slow-burning but runaway success would be the best of it. That he has created an entire community of people who feel the same way is his gift to all of us. Happiness isn’t conformity, or cowing to others’ idea of who you ought to be. It’s doing every stupid thing that makes you feel alive, and the joy you feel at coming out on the other side, still breathing. Long live The Mountain Goats.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones in a position forward of the board, along with a stereo feed of The Mountain Goats’ engineer Brandon Eggleston’s excellent house mix. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [FLAC] | [MP3]

Stream the entire set:



The Mountain Goats

2015-04-11

City Winery

New York, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41 (FOB, ROC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard (engineer: Brandon Eggleston)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, adjust levels, fades, downsample)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter, imaging)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:33:56]

01 [intro]

02 Get Lonely

03 The Ballad of Bull Ramos

04 Love Love Love

05 [banter1]

06 Palmcorder Yajna

07 Animal Mask

08 [banter2]

09 Luna

10 Deuteronomy 2:10

11 [banter3]

12 Beyond the Mysterious Beyond

13 Raja Vocative

14 Woke Up New

15 Steal Smoked Fish

16 Never Quite Free

17 Song for Dennis Brown

18 Stabbed to Death Outside of San Juan

19 Foreign Object

20 This Year

21 The Legend of Chavo Guerrero

22 [encore break]

23 You Were Cool

24 Southwestern Territory

25 Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1

26 [encore break 2]/piano jam

27 No Children

Band:

John Darnielle – Vocals, guitar, keys

Matt Douglas – saxophone, guitar, keys, horns

Peter Hughes – Bass

Jon Wurster – Drums

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT The Mountain Goats, visit their website, and buy their records from their online store.