The Mountain Goats at Bristol's Trinity Centre 17/11/15
Posted on: 2015-11-18
Our rating:
The Mountain Goats gave such an explosive performance with such strong and steady vocals coming from Mr Darnielle and epic, rich backing coming from the extremely talented members of the live band.
The Mountain Goats performed at Bristol’s Trinity Centre on the 17th November, touring with their new album, Beat the Champ.
The show had a vibe unlike any I had ever experienced before. It held a sort of tangy juxtaposition of terrifying lyrical themes pitted against light-hearted, carefree fun. John Darnielle could barely go two lines without splitting a smile at some points, dancing around the stage and encouraging the audience to sing along – which they did with some vigour. Although in hindsight it probably was a little strange to be grinning and dancing around, feeling elated and joyful, while belting out a song about drug abusers or bitter doomed marriages… at the time it felt great. People held hands, danced, sang, and beamed up at the man who truly deserves to be named the greatest songwriter of his generation.
Armed with a decent number of instruments and a smattering of rather fetching jackets, the Mountain Goats tore through an incredible set list that seemed to dig out hidden gems for the nerdier fans (me), yet also graced the wider audience with some stomping classics. The tunes came from all over the last 20 odd years, encompassing the many facets of Darnielle’s songwriting talents. The parables, the soaring metaphors, the gorgeously brutal lexis that delves into the autobiographical so many times that standing there in that audience you almost feel as if you know this man. One brave audience member spoke for droves as he cried out “you saved my life!”, meeting with Darnielle’s beautifully modest dismissal that hew merely wrote the music that was played while the man saved his OWN life. That is what we came for. That is what thousands of Mountain Goats fans need to believe in. After that night, the enigmatic man was no longer just a myth – John Darnielle was very real and very very cool.
Definitely a highlight of the show was his attitude to life and performing. He would go off on rambling tangents about the song topic, which was always deceptively fascinating and it took a better person than me not to burst out laughing at his more elaborate social (or indeed video game) commentary. There were witty and compelling comments just thrown between songs as if they were nothing. Such was the beautiful mind of JD, full of these throwaway statements that to him are nothing but natural, but to us were something powerful to cling to. Coincidentally I read today that he studied the same thing as I am currently studying at university. Thus, I concluded, there is hope for us all…
The music itself was played absolutely beautifully. The blessing of lo-fi (alright, ‘bi-fi’) music is that it really does make no promises it can’t keep. Even recorded and mastered it is beautifully and charmingly raw and overflowing with emotion. Much of what can only be referred to as fraud in modern music leads to disappointing live performances, but The Mountain Goats gave such an explosive performance with such strong and steady vocals coming from Mr Darnielle and epic, rich backing coming from the extremely talented members of the live band.
The songs ranged in pace, tone, and popularity, all culminating in a ridiculously passionate encore that had people screaming out the words to what used to be, at least in my mind, quite a quiet reflective song. My personal highlights were Foreign Object, a hilarious, catchy, and inventive song from the recent wrestling-themed album; Woke Up New, which was given touchingly fragile vocals and had me in tears; and No Children, which was the exact song where my voice finally gave out from singing so loud. Up The Wolves was also given a rousing rendition, along with Animal Mask and Heel Turn 2.
The energy was palpable throughout. I have no idea what kind of superhuman power the stage dwellers were endowed with that allowed them to keep their heavy suit jackets on, but by the time it ended the crowd looked like a popped balloon. Exhausted, breathless, complete in their use. It was a powerful and profoundly moving experience, but one that wasn’t entirely serious. One that made us all laugh. One that was light-hearted and life-affirming. I’ll be walking on a cloud for months.
5/5
Reviewed by Miri Teixeira for 365Bristol
Article by:
Born and raised in the suburbs of Swansea, Jimmy moved to Bristol back in 2004 to attend university. Passionate about live music, sport, science and nature, he can usually be found walking his cocker spaniel Baxter at any number of green spots around the city. Call James on 078 9999 3534 or email Editor@365Bristol.com.
