In between visits to Arkansas and Wisconsin on its spring tour, indie rock titan My Morning Jacket stopped in Athens. Thursday night, audience members, including Ohio University students, community members and fans from all over the Midwest, filed into the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium to see the eclectic group preceded by Grace Cummings, an alternative singer/songwriter from Australia.
Cummings hit the stage for her opening act at 8 p.m. sharp, followed by her three-piece band. The instrumentalists shared playful gestures and looks with the singer throughout their 45-minute set, setting the tone for the iconic dynamic of the headlining band.
The singer also performed a few solo songs, proving an aptitude for the acoustic guitar as well as the keyboard through folksy ballads and existential rock numbers. Harnessing an alto resonance in her vocal cords, Cummings’ voice is reminiscent of both Bjork and Eddie Vedder while remaining something totally original, tinged with an angered melancholia that another voice would be hard pressed to replicate.
By the end of her performance, Cummings had replaced the sleeves of her cardigan with her sleeve of tattoos and swapped her acoustic guitar for an electric. She transformed into a sensual and powerful leading lady without skipping a beat or sacrificing her initial folksy image.
After sufficiently revving up the audience, Cummings ended her set and left the crowd in antsy anticipation for half an hour, growing more restless with each passing minute until a sweeping orchestration ushered the band members to the stage. Shrouded in kaleidoscopic lights and hypnotic, spiraling projections, My Morning Jacket began the performance with “Beginning from the Ending,” a track off the new album, “is.”
Hearing new songs from the album was a highlight for some members of the audience, like Lyndsey Fulton, a resident of Columbus who travelled to Athens for her 35th My Morning Jacket Show.
“This is the first time I’ve seen them on this tour with the new album, so the songs they did from the new album just blew me away,” Fulton said.
Songs like “Beginning from the Ending” revealed a consistent balance between the five instrumentalists. Technicians swapped out guitars of all shapes, sizes and colors from song to song, the musicians proving each time it is possible for a band to sound just as tight on stage as it does in the studio.
“When I first started listening to them, I thought their music was good, and then I went to a live show … and I was hooked,” Fulton said. “Their live show is unbelievable, I think they’re honestly the best live band of this generation.”
Chris Presutti, another Columbus resident and longtime fan, enjoys witnessing the group dynamic during live shows, of which he’s seen upward of 30.
“One of the things you really like about them is they seem to be having such a good time,” he said. “It’s contagious, the joy they make.”
Presutti also believes the homecoming of the band’s keyboardist, Bo Koster, factored into the special energy of the show; Koster studied political science and economics at OU and graduated in 1996.
“Bo’s been waltzing down memory lane all day,” Jim James, the band’s vocalist and guitarist, said between songs.
James, the undeniable powerhouse behind the band's energy, brought two different personas to his two roles on stage: the guitarist, a hardcore shredder with natural headbanging hair, and the vocalist, a charismatic master of nasal belting and delicate falsetto. He showed off smooth dance moves when unencumbered by his guitar, giving songs like “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1” an infectiously groovy quality.
Each song received an uproarious response from the audience, but most palpably for “Off the Record” and “One Big Holiday,” both tracks off albums released in the early 2000s. The swell in audience reactions during these early tracks is a testament to the dedicated fans who have witnessed the band's journey across decades. Along with these crowd favorites, each fan has a personal track they hope to hear at each show.
“I always like it when they play ‘Steam Engine,’ and this was probably the best arrangement that I’ve ever seen at any of the shows,” Cathleen Pressuti, who travelled from Columbus with Chris, said.
In addition to this more mellow track from their repertoire, the band performed intense instrumental interludes, experimental electronic songs and jazz-inspired numbers complete with a saxophone and disco ball. The band maintained this eclectic mix with high energy throughout its two hours on stage; the duration of the concert alone justified the ticket prices, which ranged from $49 to $99.
For the encore, the band featured Cummings’ chilling vocals on a cover of “Knockin' On Heaven's Door,” and included songs like "State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.)” and “Wordless Chorus” in their final few minutes on stage, having put on an electric show that will not be the last for many audience members.
“There was something really special about it tonight … they were just emotional, energetic, just put their heart and soul into every single song, it was so much fun,” Cathleen Pressuti said.
