My Morning Jacket

Morrison, CO, Red Rocks – August 21, 2008

Setlist:
Anytime
Off the Record
Gideon
Evil Urges
Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1
The Way that He Sings
What a Wonderful Man
I’m Amazed
Thank You Too!
Sec Walkin
Golden
Two Halves
War Begun
Lay Low
Aluminum Park
Mahgeeta
Phone Went West
Bermuda Highway
Librarian
Dondante
Smokin From Shootin ->
Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2

Encore:
Wordless Chorus
Highly Suspicious
Cobra
Steam Engine
Dancefloors
Run Thru
One Big Holiday

Opening Act:
The Black Keys


This day doesn’t start out according to plan. Around lunchtime Paula gets a call from Jen. Her three-month-old son Ellis has decided that nighttime isn’t appropriate for sleep; consequently she and Tom have been walking around like zombies all day. It’s a tough decision, but they’re going to bail on tonight’s My Morning Jacket (MMJ) concert in Denver. You see, Jen and MMJ frontman Jim James were friends in college at the University of Kentucky back when he was known as James Olliges. She can claim to be one of the oldest MMJ fans and had been looking forward to catching them at Red Rocks all summer. But it is not meant to be.

So, I spend the afternoon searching for a good home for Tom and Jen’s tickets. After some time I find Adam, an old friend and musician who’d seen MMJ with me in 2004. You should hear his excitement when I make the offer. “My Morning Jacket? You’re kidding? Of course I want to go! So where is this? The Fox Theater or something?” I reply, “No, Red Rocks.” There’s a moment of silence and then I hear a scream: “RED ROCKS! AWESOME!” He’s never been there before. Within an hour I’ve got the tickets in hand and Adam’s got his friend Elliot on board. They arrive at our house with a bounty of garden vegetables and chicken eggs. Who says this isn’t a barter economy?

The drive to Denver is smooth. After years of driving through Morrison toward the Manitou Experimental Forest I have this place figured out. We take the back road into Red Rocks and get a choice spot near the amphitheater. I love how laid back Red Rocks is. We have no problem taking in our cooler with snacks and beverages. Adam brings his camera. Compare this to San Antonio where they confiscated my pen. Being so late and after seeing that we don’t want to push our bodies into the front, Paula and I head to the upper general admission section. We find a home: row 55, seats 28 and 29. Adam and Elliot decide to test their luck up front. They eventually wind up in the 5th row!

It’s a pity that we’ve missed almost the entire opening set from the Black Keys. From what I see they’re really good. For just a two person band (guitar and drums) they produce a lot of sound. I like good old-fashion in-your-face guitar, and this has a lot of that. If anybody has one of their albums I’d love to check it out!

In between sets I notice one of the major differences between Red Rocks and most other venues. For example, at the Iron Maiden concert in San Antonio it cost $7 for a beer; well, rather a clear liquid masquerading as beer. At Red Rocks the price is the same, but the beer is good. Tonight I choose a Single Track from the Boulder Brewery. Very Tasty! As Paula and I sit waiting we notice a girl selling hideous glow-in-the-dark schlock. Who buys this crap?

Then the lights go out as the anticipation grows. At around 8:45 the assault begins: “Anytime”, “Off the Record”, and “Gideon”. Three classics from the ‘Z’ album. The band are dressed in dark clothes and the illumination is sparse. The first two-thirds of the amphitheater is packed; it is a bit thinned up where we’re standing. If you’ve never seen MMJ, do it soon. They are one of the best bands out there. I hate to describe their musical style, so I’ll just say it’s Kentucky music. Their music is exciting. Their live shows are exciting. What more could you want?

The band spends much of the set working though their new album, ‘Evil Urges’. I’m not too keen on the latest MMJ album, but everything sounds better tonight. They play “Evil Urges”, “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1”, “I’m Amazed”, “Thank You Too!”, “Sec Walkin”, “Two Halves”, and “Aluminum Park” from the album. For “Touch Me” Jim James exchanges his guitar for a cape, a la Count Dracula (very strange). They throw a few classics into the mix as well: “The Way that He Sings”, “What a Wonderful Man”, “Golden”, “War Begun”, “Lay Low” (again featuring the cape), and “Mahgeeta”. They really get into “War Begun”.

I hate to complain that much, but the sound at Red Rocks really is hideous. I’ve been there several times and it’s always been terrible. I’m not sure if it’s the location of the PA at the base of the foothills, the sound bouncing off the rocks, the under-powered PA system, or the incompetent sound engineers. But it always sounds like mud. Tonight the bass really suffers. I’m not sure I can make out a single intelligible bass note all night. The bass and the kick drum create a low frequency wasteland.

Now, for those of you who’ve never been to Red Rocks, let me explain that you will never find a more dramatic venue to experience a concert. It may be equaled, but never exceeded. As MMJ settles into mellow territory with “Phone Went West”, “Bermuda Highway”, and “Librarian”, I take in the full beauty. It’s about 10 p.m. and the stars are shining on this perfect night. The pillars of rocks that make up the amphitheater are simply majestic; in the backlight they are the warmest red you could ever imagine. The music is romantic. The city is sparkling over the hills in the background. And the most wonderful half-moon is rising over Denver. I’ve only seen a few that were larger or more orange. Paula and I relax in our seats and enjoy this moment. This is my highlight of the entire evening.

The concert’s climatic end are “Dondonte” (with a beautiful saxophone solo) and the final songs from ‘Evil Urges’. “Smokin From Shootin” looses much of its drama in the acoustics. I watch “Two Tone” Tommy on the video screen and see that he is hitting different notes up and down his bass. All I hear is this throbbing mush, “whoomb, whoomb, whoomb, whoomb.” “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2” really exceeds my expectations. Armed with a Casio keyboard and plenty of smoke, Jim James leads the band through this psychedelic dance anthem. Perhaps the ending is a bit rushed, but it is triumphant nonetheless.

As the audience cheers for the encore I hear a fan screaming for “Highly Suspicious”. I’m thinking, “Just a few more songs and we’ll be spared that abomination”. The band and the cape reappear a few moments later for “Wordless Chorus”. By the end of the song Jim James is flailing around some kind of the lion’s head. Who knows why, but consider this is the guy who dressed like a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder the first time I saw him; last time he was wearing two six shooters around his waist. And then my nightmare is fully realized when I hear the first few techno-thrash notes of “Highly Suspicious”. The crowd around me is really excited. Why on earth? I don’t think there has been a worse song ever written since Axl Rose tacked the garbage that is “My World” onto the end of ‘Use Your Illusion II”. Much like a beaten down Rocky Balboa, Jim James performs with a towel over his head. If it were me I’d be wearing a bag over mine. “… Peanut butter pudding surprise!”

The first time I saw MMJ they finished up with their disco/dance anthem “Cobra”. Over the years that song has really grown on me. It seemed out of place back then, but makes a lot of sense today. Again, the acoustics ruin some of the experience.

The home stretch of this epic concert features the album ‘It Still Moves’. On “Steam Engine” Jim James donnes the lions head. I though gimmicks like that belonged at Iron Maiden concerts. But, there’s nothing gimmicky about “Dancefloors”, “Run Thru”, or “One Big Holiday”. The strobe lights are in fully force. The band is on fire. Two and three-quarters hours is a lot of music. It’s 11:30 and MMJ says “Good night” to Red Rocks.

The next day I find a discussion of the concert. There’s a comment that I want to paraphrase: “To Jen, your little band isn’t so little anymore.”

By the way, you can read little Ellis Hayes’ blog at:

http://www.babyhayesblog.blogspot.com/

John
August 2008

P.S. I do not have Adam's pictures yet. So come back soon for his photos of the concert.

Notes:

For those of you who care, here’s the breakdown by album:
‘The Tennessee Fire’ – 1 song played
‘At Dawn’ – 3 songs played
‘Chocolate and Ice’ – 1 song played
‘It Still Moves’ – 6 songs played
‘Z’ – 7 songs played
‘Evil Urges’ – 11 songs played

Woodshed

Rusty’s Last Chance, Manhattan, KS - Tuesday, September 16, 1997

Setlist:

Runnin’ with the Devil
Do You Want to Go
Sea of Tranquility
Up it Rose
Ice Cream Jeans
Slipslide
Paint it Black
Delirious
Red Field
Cinnamon Girl
Giving It All That You Can
White Picket Fence

Opening for: Shaking Tree


You may ask yourself, why would something this preposterous make this list? Doesn’t this belong in the bottom 10? Well, believe it or not, this just might have been the most fun gig that I ever played….

… Even I can’t believe I just wrote that.

Let’s start with a tutorial on who Woodshed were and what circumstances brought them back to the stage one last time. Woodshed was the creation of a very odd group of musicians: Jeff Lees, Darren Strope (Manhattan High ’91 if I’m not mistaken), a long haired hippie named Jimmy, and Andy Van Meter. On vocals Jeff was a modern day cross between Jim Morrison and Fred Schneider. Imagine that juxtaposed against the Eddie Van Halen-inspired guitar playing of Andy (ironically, this was one of the few times Andy wasn’t in a cover band). And somewhere in between were the flammable temperament of Darren and the kitten-like personality of Jimmy.

The mighty Woodshed formed in the spring of 1997. My first encounter with the group was when Andy proposed that I help produce their first demo in our garage. Early in the project, Noah and I were listening to an instrumental version of “Delirious”, when we thought, wow, this is really heavy. I wonder what it’ll sound like with vocals. A few days later we had our answer. Try and picture the pounding music of Soundgarden’s “Birth Ritual” paired with the lyrics “I am CURIOUS what you KNOW… and I PONDER what you KNOW…” sung to a melody that wouldn’t have been out of place on “Love Shack”.

From the start, Woodshed was amazingly unpopular. I doubt Manhattan was ready for their avant-garde style. But, they had one ally, and a powerful one at that: Steve Anthony, station director of FM 101.5 K-Rock. You see, Steve and Jeff were housemates. Despite their lack of fan base, Woodshed found themselves booked at various venues around town in the summer of 1997. I saw them a few times, which come to think of it, may have been every show they ever played.

But, their biggest coup was inclusion on the big ‘Manhattan Project’ CD that was slated for production that summer. That compilation was to feature a dozen bands from the Manhattan music scene, who were to be recorded live during a three day festival. Somehow Woodshed was selected. They paid their $100 entry fee and then geared up for their inevitable big break. But the Manhattan Project was in financial trouble from the start. The festival was pushed back, the recording was canceled, some of the bands dropped out. The Project struggled for a long time tying to raise the dollars and to keep the dream alive.

Meanwhile, the personalities that made up Woodshed began to clash and tear it apart. I remember one incident in Bomber’s Upstairs when Darren was upset about the Manhattan Project and refused to help distribute promotional fliers. Andy and Jeff felt differently; tempers flared, profanities were thrown around, and Darren grabbed the stack of filers and ran off (presumably to toss them in a nearby dumpster). Unfortunately, in his anger he never looked down, missed the first step, and tumbled down the entire stairway leading out of Bombers. I had to laugh, because in the process he’d done a pretty good job distributing all the fliers he’d vowed to throw away.

The breaking point was reached soon after when Jimmy moved to western Kansas and the band imploded. His Snuggle Bear demeanor apparently had been the glue that kept the band together. I’m not sure anyone in the music scene ever noticed Woodshed’s absence.

Then, by some miracle, the Manhattan Project finally got on track. The venue would be Bomber’s Upstairs, the dates would be August 28 to 30, and one of the bands would be, believe it or not, Woodshed. I asked Andy why. “We paid our $100, and I’ll be damned if we don’t get our money out of the deal,” “So, who’s going to play bass?” “We thought about asking you!”

Oh my, oh my. I was suddenly in deeper than I wanted to be. I guess my mistake was being too familiar with the band: having helped produce their demo, having seen most of their shows, and being a fairly competent bass player on the side. I reluctantly agreed.

Woodshed drew the short straw and opened up the festival. We took the stage in front of a mostly empty venue. I can’t say I remember too much from those three nights at Bomber’s, though they had their moments. But, for better or for worse, the tapes were there and they were rolling. (This is off topic a bit, but when we were setting up on stage Andy’s amp was picking up some crazy crosstalk. I took a peek in the backstage electrical room and immediately slammed the door in shock and horror. I told Andy, “we’d better be careful or this place will burn to the ground.” It did a few months later!)

A few nights later the four of us made the trip downriver to Lawrence to the studio where we’d mix our part of the show. Again, there was another contentious situation. To be honest, our performance wasn’t very good. Three of us agreed that one song, “Slipslide”, was probably the best choice for the compilation. One of us, Andy, was aghast that we’d choose the only “wimpy” song from the set. His temper rose to the point of quitting right there, calling Vicki to pick him up (from 90 miles away in Manhattan) to take him home, and pulling the plug on the whole project. I guess he didn’t want his unshakable heavy-metal reputation ruined. We eventually calmed him down, finished the project and went back to Manhattan, and that was it. Woodshed was dead. Done. Finished. Case closed.

But the story doesn’t end there.

Jeff Lees had one more card to play. As bar tender at Last Chance, he was asked to find a band to open up last-minute for some headliner that time has also forgotten. In a pinch he reunited Woodshed for a one-off performance.

And now you know the backstory.

I once read that Paul McCartney’s favorite memory as a Beatle was recording ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band’ because they got to make believe they were somebody else. I guess Woodshed was that for me, and I was playing the role of Billy Shears. That September night I remember being dressed up like Buddy Holly with horn-rimmed glasses and an Aquafresh blue and white stripped sport coat (the sport coat is long gone, though I still own a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, but the joke’s on me as I have to wear them most of the time). It sounds ridiculous, but so was the idea of a Woodshed reunion concert.

Darren and I were ornery and started our last show by baiting Andy into playing “Runnin’ with the Devil”. It was funny to watch him, much like the ecstasy of a dog rolling on its back, as he jumped onstage and tore into the famous Van Halen riff. The bar was pretty full (Noah, Jennica, and Brett Speidel were in the front row) and everyone was having a really good time. I figured why not just enjoy this for what it is: pure, unadulterated fun. There was Jeff laughing during “Up it Rose” when he intentionally sung the wrong lyrics to poke fun of my earlier misunderstanding of the real ones. I remember one point when a part of Darren’s drum kit broke down, and he stopped in disgust. Normally, he would have stormed off stage and thrown some sort of tantrum. But this night even he smiled as the rest of us jammed on and he joined back in. It even got pretty intense during the epic “Giving it All that You Can”, to the point that I broke my bass string by pounding on it so hard. I played the final song with only three strings.

There were plenty of hugs afterwards. Of course none of us were stupid enough to suggest we ever reform again. And since then Woodshed has been purged from all memory, well, except from mine.


Notes:

Here is a list of all known Woodshed Recordings:

Demo – May (?) 1997 [1]
Rusty’s Last Chance, Manhattan, KS – May 27, 1997 [2]
The Waydown Lounge, Manhattan, KS – July 13, 1997 [2]
Bomber’s Upstairs, Manhattan, KS – August 28, 1997 [1],[3]
Rusty’s Last Chance, Manhattan, KS – September 16, 1997 [4]

[1] The original multitrack tapes are currently in the possession of Andy Van Meter. It is not known whether anyone else has a copy.
[2] The original microcassette tapes are currently in the possession of John Frank. It is not known if they have ever been played since being recorded.
[3] “Slipslide” is available on ‘ The Manhattan Project 1997’
[4] The original cassette tape and CD transfer are currently in the possession of John Frank.