My Morning Jacket Live in Bangor, Maine

First a confession. Because of my inability to stand for any period of time and the festival nature of the Kah Bang festival in Bangor my wife and I did not purchase tickets. We drove downtown parked on the hill above the concert grounds and listened to the entire show when MMJ closed down the festival Saturday night.

Taking the stage after 1030 MMJ entered to a repeating " Destination Bangor Maine " from the Roger Miller classic King of the Road. Jim Jones whose voice is one that is a cross between a Southern Robert Plant and a werewolf sings just like you imagine he would. His voice is perfect, that is if you like what you hear on recordings. Still the last album by MMJ is in many ways a quiet, more thoughtful piece of music. With sometimes bewitching music and an ehtereal voice Jones was not in a high end party mood. Songs like Wonderful and Circuital from the Circuital album were perfectly played. Golden and Gideon were highlights and at various times Jones let go with his signature high pitched wails.

The curfew again took it's toll on the performance as many expected songs were not played. MMJ could have and should have adjusted the set lists to get a few more of the expected songs like One Big Holiday and Just One Thing in but one does not know how much they knew of the curfew when planning their set.

Still, musically the band was on target and all but perfect. This is a band that has found it's niche and whose audience is growing. In Bangor, Maine however that audience was not strongly present. A smaller than to be expected crowd, certainly smaller than the previous night Lupe Fiasco, Atmosphere rap double bill. My son and his friends were excited about Friday nights events. MMJ certainly appeals to an older, more granola audience and the crowd showed it.

The performance was great and if anything the success of the performance shows how far the Bangor market has to go to embrace diverse types of music. Reading a comment in the BDN from a gentleman who said he had shook the President's hand but considered shaking Slug from Atmosphere's hand as more meaningful perhaps gave us an unintendedly clear vision of the youth of today. Were it me I would rather than be embracing MMJ...I loved the show..the music over the bay with the moonlight was indeed a great setting.

Still the event was well done, I saw groups of kids out with bags picking up trash in the surrounding neighborhood as the event came to a close. The Kah Bang folks should be commended. I hope it continues to grow.

As for My Morning Jacket. I was a fan before the show and am one now. The only thing they might do is widen their set list a bit, for us in Bangor we do not know what we should have heard if the curfew had not been in place.