Anyone else going? Transcendental Youth made such an impression on me that I have to go.

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Went to a show earlier in the tour. SPOILER ALERT:








He loves playing piano these days. The horns are a really nice touch, especially on "This Year" and the songs from Transcendental. The version of "San Bernadino" they're doing lately sounds a bit unsettling without the strings. Still kind of bummed he's permanently taken Georgia out of the rotation as that was my favorite of the ones people obnoxiously yell for throughout an entire concert.

Which one did you go to? Milwaukee? Grand Rapids?

I like piano, and the new songs kind of require it, so that's cool. I love almost every song from Transcendental Youth, so I'm glad the setlists indicate they'll be heavy on that, even if it's the expense of some older stuff. I mean, even Radiohead had to stop playing "Creep."

"High Hawk Season" would be a fun one to bust out, but only if the audience can be trusted to replicate the harmonies. I don't have my hopes up, though.

"This Year" with horns is going to be awesome.

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Went to the first New York show (recording here: http://www.nyctaper.com/2012/10/the-mou ... streaming/). The audience was actually surprisingly respectful when it came to requests, something I didn't think was possible for a Mountain Goats show in 2012 in Williamsburg of all places (though some idiots were prattling on during "The Day the Aliens Came" and prompted an abrupt lecture). Matthew E. White's set was a lot of fun too if you're into that style of music at all.

I know nothing of his work, but I will be happy to look into it!

And ew, I hope John doesn't have to lecture us. I'll feel really bad.

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I had never heard of these guys. Just skipping through a few songs on You Tube.
I'm liking the sound. I saw they were going to be in Milwaukee a while back but
I didn't bother to look into what they were like.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

if you didn't get to them already, may I recommend

This Year
Alpha Rats Nest
No Children
Dance Music
Idylls of the King
Old College Try
High Hawk Season
Pale Green Things
Never Quite Free
Going to Georgia
Woke Up New
The Young Thousands
Michael Myers Resplendent
September 15th, 1983
Transcendental Youth
The Diaz Brothers
White Cedar
Cubs in Five

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I will look into those probably later today. Thanks. Hope you have a good time at the show.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I probably won't because I'm incapable of having fun in large, crowded places, but thanks anyway! I just wasn't gonna let myself not see the Mountain Goats. Too important to me.

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Im with ya T Bone, never heard of these dudes ( dude??) so I you tubed some of their songs, pretty good stuff. I figured the future POY wouldnt try to turn us on to bad music so I figure I'll give em a shot. Transcendental Youth is a good tune.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

"Best night of my life" would be unnecessarily hyperbolic, but undoubtedly the best in the last 18 months.

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So you managed to have a real good time despite the crowd then?

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Oh, I'm so full of shit. Crowd wasn't that bad. I will note, however, that a select few of my fellow audience members did not seem like the thoughtful young people one would expect to be fans of the Mountain Goats. I was up in the balcony waiting out the tiresome bearded-white-guy-blues-band-invoking-Jesus-Christ-in-every-song opening act, and behind me were these four total Bro Broersons. One guy was actually doing Borat schtick in October 2012 and the other--and this is all true, I promise--was recounting a pursuit of a female prospect somehow predicated on pizza delivery, to which a companion interjected "yeaahhh, give her the sausage!" and high-fived. Once John came on stage, I scurried back to the lower level to be back among guys in stupid glasses and cute girls.

The whole set was outstanding, but one of my favorite moments was before he played "White Cedar," which is a song about psych wards from the new album, which is loosely about mental illness. He talked about how he used to work in a psychiatric hospital and saw firsthand how people would treat the residents as mere "crazy people" and not realize that they're human beings with feelings and families and people who care about them, and we have to work hard not to lose sight of that. As someone who has dealt with mental illness, been the friends and family of others who have, and yet still sporadically lapsed in my own treatment of others as any human being does, the whole thing really hit me hard in every direction. The song itself has a beautiful hymnal quality to it and, as always, terrific lyrics, and the whole thing ended up being fairly emotional for me.

Also, I'm really happy that "This Year" was the encore. Being able to shout "I am going to make it through this year if it kills me" at the top of my lungs is something I've needed to do for years, and doing so alongside a thousand strangers was the only occasion in which it was going to be socially acceptable to do so, so that was fortunate.

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The Vic show is on the Internet Archive now: http://archive.org/details/tmg2012-10-27.aud

Oh, sweet. I must have it. Thanks!

The speech before "White Cedar" is very touching, I think you'll find.

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Playing Space in Evanston and Lincoln Hall on back-to-back nights and they're both sold out. Ah, fuck.

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