The Mountain Goats own my heart. The most remarkable thing* about them is that you can tell they love their lives. On stage, lead-man John Darnielle seems so pumped to be performing that you can’t help but be pumped right along with him. Thursday night (January 19th) in Austin, Darnielle and his bandmates Peter Hughes and Jon Wurster played the first gig of their current tour – a sold out show at Antone’s.
Considering The Mountain Goats have over a dozen albums and hundreds of songs, it’s impossible for a fan-girl like me to not feel a bit disappointed when they don’t play some of my old favorites. However, Thursday’s set list did not make me sad in the least (plus I’ve seen them ten times, so I really can’t complain.)
They played a handful of brand new material, which was all wonderful, alongside a bunch from their back catalog, including: “You Were Cool,” “See America Right,” “Palmcorder Yanja,” “Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod,” “Birth of Serpents,” “Age of Kings,” “Prowl Great Cain,” and the ultimate fan favorite “No Children.”
Before starting in on “No Children,” John thanked the audience for singing along and added “Don’t ever let anyone make you feel afraid to sing as loud as you want to”** - which I did without hesitation, bad singing voice and all.
For the encore, they just so happened to be reading my mind and played two of my favorite songs, “International Small Arms Traffic Blues” and “Going to Georgia,” then ended the set with the anthem “This Year” which had everyone screaming “I am going to make it through this year if it kills me!”
John also mentioned the fact that he’s a new dad but that The Mountain Goats will not be putting out a “doting dad record” anytime soon, but instead we can expect lots of “Satan Songs” in the future – “I’ve written a lot of songs about Satan with my right hand on the piano and my baby boy in my left arm.”**
Before I close, I should mention that the band that opened for The Mountain Goats (and who are also supporting TMG on all dates during this tour) was called Nurses. Honestly, I’m sorry to say I don’t really have anything to say about them except the singer sounded similar to that of the Fleet Foxes. Check them out HERE.
You can find a list of Mountain Goats dates on their website HERE.
*TMG fans, see what I did there?
**Caution: these are not direct quotes, just paraphrased from memory.
- Posted by Stephanie E. Gordon 
