MY MORNING JACKET EN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

// Por: Staff

jue 1 diciembre, 2011

Artista: MY MORNING JACKET

Lugar: En Gibson Amphitheater

Fecha: 01 December 2011

En Gibson Amphitheater

La historia de la música nos dice que el rock viene de esa música que hizo la raza negra. Sabiendo que My Morning Jacket es un grupo influyente de nuestros tiempos, fue entendible porque la banda abridora era Sarah & the Dap-Kings, pues para entender lo que escuchamos en estos días, se debe de regresar a la raíz. Así empezó el concierto en el Gibson Amphitheater en Los Angeles, California, con una explosión de jazz, blues, gospel y hasta de orquesta que hizo bailar a más de uno.

El escenario cambió para que recibiéramos a My Morning Jacket, pantallas como si fueran cuadros de fondo que nos proyectaban imágines diversas y en lo alto, colgaba un telar para que en el preciso momento en que las luces se apagaran, el ojo de “Circuital” nos observara atento has el final del concierto. No se podía dejar de gritar y emocionarse, ellos salieron y sin decir más, abrieron con ‘Victory Dance’ seguida de ‘Out Of My System’ y ‘It Beats 4 U’.
Saben perfectamente lo que hacen, nos llevaron subiendo nuestra emoción hasta ponernos melancólicos y sobre todo, entender el country con el que crecieron y formaron lo que hoy son.

Antes del famoso encore, tocaron ‘Circuital’ que por sí sola es poderosa. No había duda que nos dejaron esperando más e idealizando un par de éxitos. Como siempre la gente impulsaba que regresaran con aplausos y chiflidos, cuando Jim James, el líder y guitarrista, aparece diciendo ‘muchas muchas gracias’ sí, en español y deseando la estuviéramos pasando bien, le dio entrada a ‘Wordless’ para seguir con ‘The Day is Coming’.
Haciendo una pausa, se refirió a Sarah & The Dap Kings para agradecerles fueran sus abridores y se declaró fan de ellos. Así entonces pude entender que como muchas bandas, están influenciadas de esta música que no dejará de ser la base de todo.

Invitando a tres miembros de ésta, un saxofonista y dos trompetistas, ejecutaron ‘Holdin On To Black Metal’ para concluir su presentación, simplemente magnífica y perfecta.
My Morning Jacket nos demostró por qué en los últimos años está siendo una banda importante y más en este que sin temor a equivocarme, Circuital estará en más de una lista de lo álbumes del año.

This is definitely not Bonnaroo, where My Morning Jacket’s set lasted almost four hours, 35 songs. This was just a gig at the Gibson Amphiteatre in Los Angeles, California. 6,000 seats for people to witness one of the most favorite bands of the 2011 performing live.

I bet most of the people gathered today, went to Lollapalooza 2011 and some of them saw MMJ and wanted to see them again and others, were bummed they didn’t see them because their set was one of the highlights of this year’s edition. My Morning Jacket so far, is one of the most favorite bands of 2011 thanks to “Circuital”, their latest album.

As opening act for tonight, they had one of their most favorite bands, the amazing Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, from Brooklyn. This band revivalists a movement that pretends to capture the essence of funk/soul. The performance was powerful and tight.

Afterwards, when the clock indicated 9:00 pm, the lights went down and we all were ready to welcome My Morning Jacket.

Yesterday (November 30), the band was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Alternative Album Category for “Circuital”. It is the band’s second such nomination. Let’s see how it goes against Radiohead, Bon Iver, Foster The People and Death Cab For Cutie. Their tour will conclude on December 14 when they will play the Madison Square Garden. What a great year for MMJ.

Now let’s talk about their performance.

The first song was ‘Victory Dance’, green atmosphere to warm up the venue. The audience was looking at them with reverence and great expectations. The stage had 5 big screens and the green eye at the center. A big green eye: the Circuital.

The second tune they perform was ‘Outta My System’. People engaged with the performance and started chanting “outta my system, outta my system”. Have you ever realized the lyrics for this song? It is really deep and a serious business. I guess that is why we all engaged here… we all have been there and done that, or some of it at least. And then, rocking it on stage, ‘It Beats 4 U’, what a great tour, what a great show with so many “colors”, so many textures. They took us for a music journey through their different albums.

What a perfect selection to play after ‘It Beats 4 U’: ‘I’m Amazed’ complements this journey, these colors and different layers of enjoyment, of power. We all were actually amazed by their delivery. An epic win. Then, when we were probably thinking we got it, the band brings another surprise to our ears: ‘Off the Record’. Isn’t this a song we all have already listened to? Isn’t this song so comfortable to our ears? Isn’t ‘Off The Record’ so familiar than you can even jump just by listening to the first chords? That is totally off the record, we jumping “…to get all wrapped up in the illusion of doing something…”.

My [first] most favorite moment of the night showed up: ‘It Still Moves’. They turned the night into a melancholic remembrance. If you pay attention to the lyrics or not, this song is going to move something. It is going to bring some memories that you didn’t even linked to it…. And then, you will realize it actually still moves. It could be your heart, your brain, just a memory… but it actually still moves.

And after that intimate cozy moment, My Morning Jacket brought their “happy rock” song: ‘Phone Went West’. What is that? Is just a favor: “…tell me there’s nobody else in the world…”. This song live starts very happy and then it gets really intense to magnify the guitar solo and then they get happy again to finish it up strident, kind of hugging their own song. This song has a very particular mood it is very intense.

After this song, Jim James –lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of MMJ- asked his crew to turn the lights on because he wanted to see our faces: “Let me see your beautiful faces. So many beautiful faces tonight”.

I am pretty sure he saw how amazed we all were by them performing. He also explained they were having some technical problems but let us know they were not paying attention to them. So, the show continued with ‘Evelyn is not real’. This performance got to be one of my [another] most favorite moments of the night. They are singing, “You broke my heart and you’re so…” and they paused for more than 10 seconds… then ‘Movin’ Away’, another melancholic moment.

And to continue with this journey, they chose to perform ‘Smokin from Shootin’. My Morning Jacket where touching hearts, touching brains, touching people tonight. Then I realized I have said several times during this concert: “this is my favorite moment of the night”, but another song came in and it killed it. It was impossible to choose one particular moment. The whole night was magical.

We knew it was about to be over. The time went by and at some point the end was coming… of course, for that moment, the perfect tune was ‘Circuital’. They got really powerful and Patrick Hallahan –the drummer- got crazy and with his arms, made us all following him. It was a punk metal moment. And all this, was the intro for ‘Circuital’, the song that names the whole album.

And yes, the time was coming. They left the stage (for the first time, as we all know how it works). They came back and performed ‘Wordless’. Of course it is wordless how to describe this moment. This song gives them freedom. They get really loose and there is no way you don’t love what is happening. Probably this is their most known song. Just like they make us, wordless.

‘The Day is Coming’ was the next one. They invited 3 members from The Dap Kings to perform with them and the stage was full of metals: trumpets and trombone.

And to continue with metals, of course it was the time for “Holdin On To Black Metal”. A complete music machine on stage.

‘Highly suspicious’ came complete the scenario. Tunes full of rhythm, beats, an invitation to dance and surrender to the band.

Definitely Jim James, Tom ‘Two-Tone’ Tommy Blankenship, Patrick Hallahan and Carl Broemel are a jacket for the soul and all those feelings. I wish I could wear them every morning.

By Marla Guedimin (laGUARP for WARP)