The Mountain Goats @ TheRosemount 9/12/2008

Fri 12th Dec, 2008 in Gig Reviews

The Rosemount was packed with a huge assortment of people – all ages, all walks of life, but interestingly, mostly male. The brutally honest lyrics of The Mountain Goats must touch a squishy place in the hearts of men; remembering their awkward teenage days, reminiscing on misspent youth, or perhaps even still living it.

In this incarnation at least, The Mountain Goats are John Darnielle, Peter Hughes and Jon Wurster. They look remarkably similar to high school Maths teachers, (more quirky though – perhaps more like Science teachers) all suited-up and well-groomed. Darnielle also comes equipped with his trademark grin and a fierce guitar style that borders on hysterical.

What is immediately apparent, is that Darnielle speaks as fast as he sings, in long, convoluted sentences that make you wonder whether or not the chaotic meth-binge days are truly behind him. He kindly provided useful context about most of the songs. The most memorable would have to be his description of how he wrote In Craters on the Moon

“…this is the song you write when you’re on a bender – not the longest one mind you, but a pretty long one; when all you have left is $5 and you COULD spend it on food, it would probably buy you a meal, but you decide it would be much better spent on more drugs. This is the song that you write while you’re waiting for someone to come back with your $5 worth…”

The crowd was transfixed from the very beginning; some people singing every word of every song; which is no mean feat, considering The Mountain Goats have released 16 albums, and an absolute plethora of EPs.

The lyrics are by turns, tragic, honest and incredibly confronting; the kind of subject matter that might see us sitting in dark corners contemplating suicide. A true poet though, Darnielle has grasped the power of contrast in music; instead of dwelling on the sadness and hopelessness of life, the music is upbeat, joyous – triumphant even; celebrating life and appreciating hardship as an opportunity to learn and grow. You get the feeling that he’s spitting in the face of adversity and proving that, despite his troubled family life and a string of unfortunate experiences, life is grand.

One of the shining moments (among many) was their live performance of Supergenesis. This song was markedly different from most of the set; an impassioned, psychedelic frenzy that had people mesmerised for the entirety of the song. Afterwards, Darnielle apologised that he couldn’t rock-out quite as hard as guitar legend, Kaki King – the person he collaborated with on that song; perhaps not, but if it was an inferior performance, it was not apparent at all.

The other song of the evening that cannot go without a mention was Wild Sage. Darnielle stopped playing his guitar, stepped away from the microphone, and sang the last verse a Capella – with a pure, emotionally strained, voice that had the crowd staring with glazed eyes and open mouths; when the guitar came back in and he sang back into the microphone, no one could contain themselves; breaking out into spontaneous cheering and applause.

After 18 years of memorable performances and so many obviously popular releases, it leads you to ask the question; why aren’t The Mountain Goats a house-hold name? They definitely have a loyal fan base, and have made it onto a least one Triple J Hottest 100 in the last few years, with This Year, but most people look at you blankly when you mention their name. It seems that in order to be famous in the music industry, you need to sell yourself as a product; something that many artists resist vehemently. The Mountain Goats have secured fans through the strength of their music and lyrics alone; and while money is necessary, it doesn’t seem to be the end goal.

Darnielle put it quite well when he declared: “I was going to bring along some EPs, but with all the import taxes they would have been too expensive, and anyway, you can just download them for free! I don’t care!” It’s nice to hear that some people just like to make music, and just want people to listen.