All year long, we welcome nationally and globally touring artists to our stage for Studio Milwaukee Sessions, sponsored by Ellenbecker Investment Group. If you want to be in the live audience for these VIP experiences, become a member today.
Two words are pretty much inescapable when it comes to The Mountain Goats: “prolific” and “narrative.” The first stems from the band’s 24 studio albums. The second is because those records achieve a level of storytelling very few artists even consider attempting.
Some words you don’t find quite as often: “John Darnielle dance party.”
At Thursday’s Studio Milwaukee Session ahead of their 7 p.m. show at Summerfest’s Aurora Pavilion, The Mountain Goats’ founder, frontman and primary songwriter showed that 30+ years in the music biz hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for being on stage.
After opening with “Shallow Grave” from upcoming album Days, Darnielle put aside his guitar for “Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds” — the LP’s other advance single — and proceeded to shimmy, shake and skip across our stage to the utter delight of a standing-room-only crowd.
He seemed to be in a headspace that jived nicely with the first question from 88Nine’s Jon Adler during the mid-set interview, which technically was about how the album-recording process has changed across the band’s career. But the answer matched up pretty nicely with the joyful freedom we saw on stage.
“I'm not as stressed as I used to be,” Darnielle said, mentioning that 2002 record Tallahassee had to be recorded and mixed in six days. “So, at that time, I would worry about it a lot … about how it's going to go over, and you have other people's voices in your head about how it's going to be received, and you're thinking about that kind of stuff. It gets in the way.
“Now, I mean this is a very cliché thing to say, but we're just focused on what we're doing. There's no other concern in my head than making music that we're going to enjoy.”
The session audience dug it pretty hard as well, with the set’s first two songs apparently being what we can expect on the full album when Days comes out Aug. 7. “They’re all bangers,” Darnielle said. “I mean, there’s slow songs. But I have to say, track for track, this is one of the catchiest, most sing-able things we’ve ever made.”
Depending on when you read this, you might have time to go sing along with The Mountain Goats at Summerfest. But you definitely have time to join us for the last couple festival-flavored Studio Milwaukee Sessions we have coming up:
- Wednesday, June 17 — Micah Emrich
- Thursday, June 25 — The Mountain Goats
- Wednesday, July 1 — Gold Steps
- Thursday, July 2 — Jobi Riccio
- Friday, July 3 — The Beths
Studio MKE: The Mountain Goats set list
- “Shallow Grave”
- “Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds”
- “Harlem Roulette”
