My Morning Jacket Fest 2012 @ The Wiltern - 9/11-9/13/12

Back in early June, when I first found out My Morning Jacket was scheduled to play 3 nights in a row at The Wiltern in LA in September, I thought I only needed to go to 1 of the 3 shows & I'd be good to go. For that reason, I only bought 1 pair of tickets for the 2nd show on 9/12. Then, after a rather spontaneous trip to Denver in early August where I was lucky enough to see MMJ at Red Rocks Amphitheatre (a venue I'd been dying to visit for years & that definitely did NOT disappoint), I decided, since I'd missed the 1st of MMJ's 2 nights at Red Rocks (& really wished I hadn't), it was necessary to attend all 3 of their shows in LA. I made the right choice :)

3 nights, 7 1/2 hours of MMJ, 59 songs, 9 covers & NO repeats. It was INCREDIBLE. They played every song I've ever loved & even introduced me to some new (old) MMJ material I'd never heard before (Cobra on night 2 was my favorite discovery ). And the covers they played every night were straight-up awesome. They covered The Band, Prince, Elton John, George Harrison, The Clash, Velvet Underground, Erkykah Badu & even Lionel Richie. All Night Long on night 3 was 1 of the best covers EVER. Fiesta forever!!

As a bonus & thanks to a kind friend's generosity, I was treated to a VIP ticket on opening night on Tuesday. I had a great view from the VIP viewing area & Dangermouse was standing next to me for a few minutes which I geeked out about :) AND I got to go to the backstage after party where I drank a free beer & chatted with MMJ's drummer, Patrick Hallahan, about Coachella 2008 & how rad it was when MMJ played the sunset set on the main stage on Sunday night before Roger Waters' 2 1/2 hour Dark Side of The Moon extravaganza where crop duster planes flew over the polo fields dropping confetti in the sky & the giant pig floated away into the night...THEN Justice closed the entire festival with a 1 hour badass set in the Sahara tent. 

Coachella 2008 will forever remain my FAVORITE of the 8 Coachellas I've been to & MMJ is a huge part of the reason why. It was my 1st full MMJ show (I'd seen them in passing at a previous Coachella but hadn't given them enough credit at the time) & it was also where I fell in love. After Thursday night's show (the 3rd & final of their 3 show stint at The Wiltern), I've now seen MMJ 11 times & know it won't stop there. I'm full-fledged obsessed now.

Night 1 on Tuesday 9/11 = Circuital / It Beats 4 U / You Wanna Freak Out / Lowdown / I'm Amazed / Lay Low / War Begun / I Will Sing You Songs / Master Plan / Old September Blues / Rocket Man (Elton John cover) / Strangulation! / Evelyn Is Not Real / Easy Morning Rebel / Anytime / The Day Is Coming / Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2 / Gideon; ENCORE: Butch Cassidy / Wonderful (The Way I Feel) / It Makes No Difference (The Band cover) / I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (Prince cover) / Phone Went West

Rocket Man (Elton John cover)


Strangulation


Night 2 on Wednesday 9/12 = Rollin’ Back / The Way That He Sings / First Light / Aluminum Park / What A Wonderful Man / Picture of You / Slow Slow Tune / Carried Away / Heartbreakin’ Man / Smokin’ From Shootin’ / O Is The One That Is Real / Evil Urges / Tyrone (Erykah Badu cover) / Cobra > Run Thru; ENCORE: Hopefully, I Will Be There When You Die / Steam Engine / Isn’t It A Pity featuring Iron & Wine (George Harrison cover) / Honest Man, Rock The Casbah (The Clash cover) / Mahgeetah

Isn’t It A Pity featuring Iron & Wine (George Harrison cover)

Night 3 on Thursday 9/13 = At Dawn / The Dark / Off the Record > Outta My System > X-mas Curtain > Thank You Too! > Tonite I Want to Celebrate with You / Golden / I Think I'm Going to Hell / Dondante > Librarian / Oh! Sweet Nuthin' (The Velvet Underground cover) / It's About Twilight Now > Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 1 > Wordless Chorus / Highly Suspicious / DancefloorsEncore: Victory Dance / Holdin' on to Black Metal / All Night Long (Lionel Richie cover) / Move On Up (Curtis Mayfield cover) / One Big Holiday

I Think I'm Going to Hell

Highly Suspicious

Oh, and Portugal, The Man was, by far, the best of the 3 openers. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing them again.

Portugal, The Man performing Senseless