The Mountain Goats/ Hit the Jackpot
Fowler's Live
Sunday 7 December


Hit The Jackpot were a strange choice of support for the Mountain Goats, to be honest I'm not sure who would be a good choice, but HTJ were not it. Their version of grunge rock was appreciated by the crowd without really making much of a dent upon our psyche. They might have some cool influences (Sonic Youth most evidently) but their sound was still reasonably sloppy.

Fowler's went quiet with expectation as the pre-gig music changed to something orchestral and then The Mountain Goats strode onto stage to some Hispanic beats. This was The Mountain Goats like Australia had never seen them before, they had a drummer, and oh, how Jon Wurster has changed this sound of this band. Sax Rohmer #1 thundered along with a growing intensity nad John Darnielle was even so caught up in the passion of it all, he ended up doing big leg kicks, such was the excitement of the full band experience. You Or Your Memory was the first real crowd favourite, Darnielle even pausing to listen to the crowd singing along. The rhythm section led Letter From Belgium to have a funkier edge but most importantly, despite The Mountain Goats bigger sound, the drums never detracted or muddied the all important lyrical content of their sound.

Darnielle's mastery of between song banter was truly on show tonight. He related to the crowd by admitting that if he was lucky enough to have someone bootleg his shows, he would not be proved to be someone who used the same pre-rehearsed banter at every city and that although indie rock fans don't like sports he stated that the song Sign Of The Crow is not about our football team. Other monologues included stories about seeing the band Heart play when he was 12 years old and an explanation of the lengths that people will go to when feeling horny, which was the inspiration for How To Embrace A Swamp Creature. Darnielle's endearing stage presence is matched by his passion when singing, his facial often resembling the overacting of a children's entertainer in pain.

Palmcorder Yajna once again provided the gloriously catharsis that it is to have a sing-along where a whole heap of well adjusted adults get to sing "if anybody comes in to our room while we're asleep, I hope they incinerate everybody in it." This Year finished off the main part of the Mountain Goats set on a huge high but the enthusiastic crowd demanded more and Darnielle and co gladly obliged. Peter Hughes's bass string broke and after playing one song with a replacement bass he was back in the spotlight as Darnielle put down his guitar and performed a cover of a Nothing Painted Blue song with a roaming mic. Sure the Mountain Goats live sound has changed, it's bigger, bolder and louder than ever but it seemed that most the fans were happy with these developments.

Scott Berry