My Morning Jacket’s The Waterfall has had the band touring hard this year and at their penultimate show of 2015, the band looked as strong as they ever have. They put out a statement before the run that they had planned on sprinkling some rarities into the sets and not repeating any songs, and three nights into the run they continued to keep their word. The sold out crowd was on their feet through the whole show with wild appreciation to everything the band was throwing at them.
Starting off with a few acoustic songs with the first “Butch Cassidy” since 2013 and soon following with “Librarian”, also the first since 2013, and “Look at You” since 2012, the crowd hollered in approval and let the show start off with a slow burn. They would play a few other acoustic tunes the rest of the night, but for the most part the band rocked The Beacon to its core the rest of the evening. Jim’s voice was tremendous and showed no signs of wear and tear from the year of touring. His unique voice shined bright, even with everyone singing along the entire time. He howled in the long stretches, as he often does, during some of the jams and it was gorgeous. Hearing his voice soar to the rafters in such a legendary venue is an absolute honor.
The band got to shine during the back to back of “It Beats 4 U” and “Spring (Among the Living). Carl Broemel pulverized the audience with his blistering solos, often coming to the lip of the stage to rock out for the fans as his hands rushed up and down the fret board. Patrick Hallahan is not under-appreciated, but just constantly does a great job of driving the band forward as does his counterpart Tom Blankenship, whose hands move effortlessly on the bass as he drops deep and dark lines that hit the audience with such force it takes you back. Bo Koster, though never overpowering, added great fills and some lead organ to the jamming all evening.
A cover of The New Basement Tapes “Quick Like a Flash” was one of two covers on the night, but since Jim was involved in the project it didn’t feel like a cover and was a major highlight of the evening. The ending of the set was a nonstop blast of energy from “Lowdown” through “It’s About Twilight Now”. The band was able to showcase how easily they can hop from genre to genre with the music jumping from funk to blues to rock. The energy in the building was electric as the band came out for a four song encore highlighted by the always weird but beautiful “Highly Suspicious” and the big sing a long of “I’m Amazed” to close the evening.
This may have been My Morning Jacket’s biggest year yet, but they show no signs of slowing down at all. With rumored touring through 2016 already happening and working on new music again, the band are in good shape to make next year even better. Hopefully this fall Beacon run isn’t a onetime occurrence and can become an annual celebration. I know many fans who would give thanks for this to happen again.