My Morning Jacket, Sept. 5, Festival Pier

POSTED: Monday, September 8, 2008, 1:00 PM

Filed Under: Music Show

"Get there early — they're a very punctual band."

"They're going to play for hours. Hope you like standing."

"Jim James loves Philly!"

"Expect some crazy covers ... when I saw them in Chicago, they did 'Tyrone' with Erykah Badu!"

I've never received so much unsolicited advice from strangers prior to a concert. I don't think I've ever received so much unsolicited advice from strangers prior to anything. Baristas, bar flies, hacking smokers outside the Khyber — for the week leading up to My Morning Jacket's Friday night alpha-band stand at Festival Pier, it seemed like everyone in the Commonwealth wanted to slip a nugget of knowledge into my breast pocket to tote along on my first-ever date with one of the most essential live bands of the decade (number eight on Rolling Stone's solid Top 20 list).

Why is that? Is it because people are being real nice lately? Or is it because MMJ's genial sound — printed on proudly, almost defiantly Southern cardstock, but still legible and daring enough for Yanks with AIG accounts to digest — has popularized the most marketable virtues of jambandery (a sense of community, a call to a shared experience) while shelving the impenetrable, insider-only ones (inefficient 16-hour noodlefests, being barefoot)? Don't know.

But I do know that number eight is way too low.

Shrouded for a portion of the show in a hooded Snape-like cape, frontman James orchestrated by example, commanding an ethereal attention in front of the mic and coaxing carnal hoots out of the soid-out crowd every time he broke free from the mouthpiece to let his warbly family of guitars drag him around. "Philadelphonic," "Phila-del-phi-ey" — it didn't matter what he called us. We just wanted to know we were getting our money's worth. It didn't hurt that as much was confirmed in a Louisville lilt.

They saved their largest swatch of hits ("Wordless Chorus," "Mageetah," "Highly Suspicious" an amazing closer in "One Big Holiday") for the end, when they'd already validated the superlatives offered up by all those random people. All told, MMJ spent nearly three hours onstage — interrupted by a shockingly brief five-minute break — and never relented. The downright unfair Carl Broemel sneaking up on riffs and redecorating them for the season, Patrick Hallahan polishing off colorful, conclusive fills by leaning over his kit and mugging, strands of James' hair lunging in all directions, uncorking invisible bottles of wine. It made all that fancy lighting seem irrelevant.

Set list:

Anytime
Aluminum Park
Off The Record
Evil Urges
Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt.1
What A Wonderful Man
Two Halves
Golden
Thank You Too!
I'm Amazed
Evelyn Is Not Real
Sec Walkin
War Begun
Phone Went West
Librarian
Dondante
Gideon
Lay Low
Mahgeetah
Wordless Chorus
Highly Suspicious
Cobra
Smokin From Shootin
Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt.2
Run Thru
One Big Holiday

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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