My Morning Jacket Keep Torontonians Out Late

Kool Haus

Toronto, ON

on Jul 11 2008

Jen White (CHARTattack)

06/17/2008 3:00pm

It might've been a Monday night, but fans showed up in droves for My Morning Jacket's Toronto stop. It was a strange mix of young and old, plain dudes and hipsters, which exhibits both the band's rock out appeal and their critical acclaim — all backed by one hell of a live show.

Montreal sextet The Besnard Lakes were the perfect openers. Their psychedelic rock set the mood for the night and had the audience cheered loudly throughout their 40-minute set. It also helped that vocalist/guitarist Jace Lasek had long, curly hair and sometimes sang in a high falsetto akin to MMJ frontman Jim James.

The crowd quickly swelled to fill up the floor in front of the Kool Haus stage in anticipation of the Louisville, Ky. quintet. As MMJ came out for their set, I couldn't tell if the smoke was thicker on stage (from all the smoke machines) or over the entire audience (from all the drugs). The crazy light show added to the fog.

It might've only been the second stop on their current tour in support of the recently released Evil Urges, but you would swear MMJ have been touring these songs for so much longer. But I guess it should come as no surprise that these road veterans would be anything less than perfect rock showmen.

MMJ relied heavily on the material from their new album, playing all of its songs minus "Look At You." Highlights included "I'm Amazed," "Aluminum Park" and "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream, Pt. 2." They also broke out the ridiculous "Highly Suspicious," an oddball song to which unsure fans politely bobbed their heads.

When James wasn't rocking out with a guitar, he would wear either a towel over his head or take out a black cape, like during "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream, Pt. 1." I also loved how everyone knew that when he took out the Flying V it was time for some great dueling guitar work with fellow slinger Carl Broemel.

MMJ also dipped heavily into their back catalogue, playing five tracks apiece from 2003's It Still Moves and 2005's Z — which is actually half of that album — and a handful of songs from 2001's At Dawn. The audience went mad for "Off The Record," and danced along to "Wordless Chorus."

There was little stage banter, but that was to be expected. MMJ played a two-and-a-half-hour set, which including a 45 minute encore. The charming James broke out a story about their latest tour stop at Bonnaroo and how all their stuff got soaked in the rain during their set. He also said how thrilled he was that everyone was staying out to rock on a Monday night, and you could tell by the smile smeared across his face that it was genuine.

Audiences generally start to shrink at the Kool Haus what with wanting to get home and all, but everyone pretty much stood their ground the whole time this night. The near-capacity crowd was hyped throughout the entire show, singing along, throwing fists and raising their beers in the air. It seems MMJ made them forget about their rising earlt for work in the morning.