Finn, Jan and I drove up to San Francisco to see our favorite Band: The Mountain Goats. It was a terrific show with a good crowd who really loved the band. People danced and sang along with the lyrics. It was in August Hall which is near Union Square. The people who worked in the venue were very helpful. Jan had run out of steam from the drive up and sitting so long, her mobility was weak right at the moment we came in, but no one in the long line was rude or pushy they just got us a wheel chair and got us right to the ADA section near the right hand side of stage. Jan was able to see the band and even though we clearly skewed the median age, everyone smiled and was happy to be there. I know I was.
The band has a long and interesting history, (their Wikipieda page is quite detailed… as befits it’s cult like following) In 1991 John Darnniell was a solo act that called himself “The Mountain Goats.” He used to make albums on his boom box and sell tapes at his gigs. These tapes are now very much prized. Jan and I got in on listening to the band around 2005 they had started putting out studio albums by then with Peter Hughes on bass and John Wurster (from Superchunk) on drums. These two form the most solid rhythm sections I’ve ever heard live.
For Jan’s sixtieth birthday we flew to Paris to go to the top of the tower and to see the Mountain Goats. We went to one art museum but it was closed. Mostly we wandered around town until we were quite lost then we would get something to eat in a cafe and then find our way back to the houseboat on the Sein where we were staying. wandering around lost seems the best thing to do before a Mountain Goats show.
John Darnielle writes all the songs and fronts the band. He is also a novelist and is a solid smart writer. I think he writes about people with troubled lives beautifully. (full dissclosure: he once wrote me a very nice blurb for one of my books) He is funny and ironic without losing his urgent sense of honesty. His songs are not to everyone’s taste but they clearly are to mine.
Here is an example: Friday night in San Fransisco the crowed had called out for one of his most popular and blunt break-up songs called. “No Children” and a young woman brought her summons to her divorce proceeding to the show and threw the papers up on and said, He read some of the papers aloud to introduce the final song Then he said “Anyone who carries around papers like these clearly needs a song in her heart to go with them.” and they ripped into No Children..
Although the song is perhaps the most bitter of songs about a breakup you have ever heard but the crowd was estatic and sang it like an anthem to all their different generations. Dance Music for the heartbroken who have survived the worst. He is a terrific songwriter with a great band backing him up.
Its ninety- five degrees in Carmel today. It was cool and damp earlier in the week when I met a woman on my walk who asked me if I had seen the sunflower in our communal garden. She said that I really should go see it because it was, “A monument to Glory,” and she said this as if she had been quiet moved. No I hadn’t seen it and I couldn’t find it on Tuesday when I went to look. Today Jan and I walked down to find it and Jan found it in the far corner. It was a massive plant but after well over ten feet high. Days of intense heat the blossoms drooped down and the tips of the petals on their smiling faces were turning black. The monument to glory appeared wilted and spooky. I was glad for my neighbor who saw it at it’s peak. Beauty exists not only in a particular place but almost always at an exact time and time is fleeting. Much like how I was lucky to catch a great rock and roll show, she was lucky for her sunflowers.
Here is a poem I wrote last weeks after listening to the news.
