A Tale of Two Concerts

Two concerts in a week is a rare treat for me. Living in L.A., I have no excuse for how infequently I make it out, other than a general lack of funds and greater lack of motivation. Maybe if I get a less comfortable couch...

First up was Cowboy Mouth at The Windjammer, on the lovely IOP, SC. This was scheduled to be the highlight of my vacation, but other events would surpass it. This was no fault of Cowboy Mouth's. This band is consistently one of the best live bands in America, which may explain how they still play to about 300,000 people every year. No one- not Springsteen, not Bono, not anyone- incites a riot from his crowd better than Fred LeBlanc. Comparing a Mouth show to a religious experience is getting pretty tired, but Fred plays the role of rock n' roll evangelist better than anyone. His God is the music, and he will show you the light.

It definitely helped that he had a roomful of devoted believers. For a band that hasn't had a genuine hit since 1996, the club was packed with people who sang along to every obscure album track and gave everything they had to the band. If you're not the kind of person who gets lost in the moment at rock shows, who worries more about how you look and where everyone is meeting for drinks later, this band may not be for you. Then again, with Fred leading the way, they may be just what you need.

In stark contrast to Cowboy Mouth's contaminating energy, My Morning Jacket's show at The Wiltern the following weekend was a study in how to alienate your audience. Of the two shows, I had been looking forward to this one a little more. Z is one of the best albums of the last couple years and I couldn't wait to see a young, ambitious band navigating all of those delicate intricacies on stage. What I got was noise. Lots of noise. Imagine the climactic swirl of a drawn-out Crazy Horse jam. Now imagine it lasts two hours, blurring songs and solos, hooks and riffs into one giant mash of open chords and distortion. It was a decent show, but this seems like a case of a band that captured magic in the studio but isn't quite capable of reproducing that magic live.