alright, so obviously it would have taken something huge to make me feel better after the crushing UCLA defeat on saturday. but luckily, i had found out about a secret mountain goats show only the day before; possibly one of the only highs to equal such a low. i had been waffling on whether to go or not — hell, there was no way to be 100% sure exactly where and when it was, even — mostly because i already had plans with jess to go out dancing for shaun’s birthday that night. but after some digging and a quick confirmation from a friend of a friend, kyle, i had more or less nailed at least the general area: pitzer college, john darnielle’s alma mater.
obviously, once the major blow was struck in the afternoon, my resolve was cemented in seeing this possibly once-in-a-lifetime show from one of my favorite bands; if nothing else, just to redeem my saturday. so i left all my friends at the post-game gathering at the cozy inn, picked up joe, and started the drive to claremont.
upon arrival 45 minutes later, we parked in a visitors’ lot and realized from that point we had no idea where to go next. i had seen on some forum it might be at the clock tower, whatever that is, but i also suspected it might be at the grove house, a campus coffee shop where they do open mics and stuff — a good candidate for the goats’ humble beginnings. after wandering around and talking to a few clueless people, we found a ‘you are here’-style campus map and just walked toward the pitzer section of campus. lucky for us, the next group of kids we caught up with were headed there, because we ended up nowhere near any towers or in any coffee shops, but a long open room on the second floor of one of the school buildings we probably never would have found on our own.
naturally it was packed, because what free show in a small boring college town wouldn’t be? but, as fate would have it, we walked around to the doors near the front of the stage, and while looking for a spot among the vast crowd of floor-sitting college kids, were waved in by that very same kyle i mentioned above. he had a spot right in front of the stage and a few square feet to spare. destiny had placed us in an excellent place to sit with a great view of the makeshift stage and someone cool to talk to while we waited.
the show itself started after some sound problems (oh, you silly music industry majors) with an old friend of john’s from college opening up with some songs of his own. since the mics were crazy with feedback he just unplugged his guitar and the mic and went au naturale, and it actually worked. the crowd was totally quiet and respectful and that alone made the show kind of amazing, even if the guy’s funny banter between songs was better than his songs themselves — they sounded alright but he was slightly reminiscent of the goo goo dolls, so there’s only so much you can expect. apparently this guy was the one who encouraged john to keep coming back to play the open mic nights when he first started though, so i give him mad respect all the same.
then our man himself came out and played a wonderful hour-long set, mostly by himself, sometimes with original bassist rachel ware. i was instantly glad to have made the trip because the set was comprised mostly of really old material i might never have seen him play on a tour supporting a new album. in fact, i tried to keep a mental count, and i only recognized 7 out of 17 or 18 songs he played, and that’s including the encore. a few were so old he said they’d never even been released (hence the reason i couldn’t tell you their names), but a lot of the stuff was off sweden, which i haven’t got around to picking up yet either.
the best was that he said flat out, ‘you guys might be enjoying yourselves, but there’s no way you’re having as much fun as i am right now’, and mentioned how he and matt were thinking of making this an annual thing, which the crowd loudly endorsed. but he also played whisper-quiet versions of ‘wild sage’ and ‘get lonely’, and i swear it was the most still and silent crowd i’ve ever been in, giving him all the respect he deserved. overall the crowd was so appreciative and radiating love for the guy, and john himself so happy to be there, the show experience was more than worth the drive. an encore of ‘best ever death metal band out of denton’ and a super-old one about loving john coltrane wrapped it up. a really great concert all around.
and just so you know the story ended happily, i also ended up making it back to LA by midnight, being able to meet up with my girlfriend for some late-night dancing and to wish shaun a happy 26th. everybody wins! who even remembers that silly old football game anyway?
