i am gonna make it through this year if it kills me (Mountain Goats/Bowerbirds, Empty Bottle 11/15)

From their own bio on their own Web site:

Many of the songs involve desperate characters who've found themselves in some trouble and want to moan about it a little before taking their lumps. The sexual tension between characters in your average Mountain Goats song could split the atom if the power could be harnessed, but it can't, so forget it.

So I'm sitting here trying to think of why I like this band so much. They make me uneasy. They make me itch. They make me want to throw up because I'm so scared for all these people who seem to be living so close to the edge of losing their minds, and then I wonder how close I myself am to that, or how far. Then they make me jump and sing along.

My first exposure was last summer or fall via one of those random samplers that emusic throws up (no pun intended) on their site for free download. This one was from Pitchfork, and included some crap, but a lot of good stuff that influenced my listening well throughout the next year. The song on the sampler "Woke Up New" was at first catchy and entertaining, and then I got tired of it, and knowing nothing about this band, wrote them off as nothing more than another group of geeky boys singing their frustrations to simple chords. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just troubled by the fact that I can't seem to get enough of that lately, but that I no longer tolerate the same from women.)

Over the next couple of months, I downloaded a few tunes here and there from some mp3 blogs... and at some point, I ended up with "Moon Over Goldsboro" and I think I was hooked. It haunted and still haunts me, for some reason conjuring up images of the times I returned to my hometown to heal after some failure or heartbreak.

There is a lot of small-town imagery in their songs, and perhaps that's part of the appeal for me. I haven't yet begun to scratch the surface of their career yet, but of the handful of albums I've aquired, I keep going back to The Sunset Tree. Maybe I just like John Vanderslice's production, (really looking forward to their next album for this reason) but I think that maybe it's becasue of how all the songs fit together as an album.

Anyway, about the show.

The Bowerbirds did their best, and played some of their fine tunes to an audience that was half listening, and half drunk and obnoxious. I think we will see more of them, and I look forward to what they do next.

As for the Mountain Goats, I was glad that I knew many of the songs they played. Having never been to one of their shows, I wasn't sure what to expect, especially considering that I don't know much of their music, overall. I don't think they played long enough, probably less than an hour, including encores, but since most of their songs are so short, they still fit in a lot of them, including a rocking, sing along, "This Year."

There is such thing as too much of a good thing though, so I suppose I should be glad they stopped when they did. I just found myself wishing I'd paid a little more attention, because to use another cliche, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. I was drinking beer, watching people, singing along and cheering, and while I wasn't looking, it was over and I was thinking, but wait, I'm having too much fun. I look forward to the next time they come to town, and I want to be more attentive next time. I hope I don't O.D. on them before that happens, but I don't know if there's a danger of that.