My Morning Jacket's Quest For Connection

Pt. 2

During SXSW, at the Independent Film Channel’s Crossroads party at The Parish, the anxious hum in the room is so palpable that it leaves an almost metallic taste in your mouth. After a raging opening set by perennial all-stars and obvious MMJ muses Yo La Tengo, singer/guitarist Jim James and his gang take the tiny stage to frenetic applause. As payback, those lucky enough to make it inside the club are enveloped by the haunting urgency of the album’s title track. The crowd is nearly blown away by the sheer physicality of the sound.

As stoic bassist Two Tone Tommy anchors the bottom end with bone-rattling intensity, Hallahan swings, grooves and pounds the beat like he’s some cowboy-shirted yeti hopped up on laughing gas. Koster’s kaleidoscopic keyboard fills in the hollows while Carl Broemel’s riffs roll off his guitar like lit balls of butane. James’ coal-fed fire keeps the band’s engine running at full steam.

My Morning Jacket packs cathartic release into every note of every song. Nothing is spared. Nothing is wasted. James is so in control of the room’s collective mojo, it’s as if he is wielding a baton instead of microphone. He’s Huck Finn with a cerebral soul. He’s a back-porch ghost, drawling and howling epic poetry.

Most of these songs are being introduced for the first time, and the audience embraces the new music. From the soft sunburst glow of “Thank You Too” through the junkyard smackdown of “Aluminum Park,” the crowd’s sway gains momentum. In the middle of “Run Thru,” things become unhinged. The room is breathing as the congregation contracts and expands, surging and swaying like a giant glowing amoeba.

“We focus on the elements of life that are the most important,” Hallahan tells me later. “It’s not about singles or radio play, it’s about being able to go to a show and see a band love what they do. It’s infectious and it becomes [reciprocal]. We infect the crowd and, in turn, they affect us. It becomes this beautiful cycle. Every show we play becomes a beautiful waltz.”

After an epic set followed by three encores, the band launches into yet another song, “Anytime,” for encore number four. James ends the show with a curious quote. Strangely, it makes perfect sense: “Things I could say to myself, I could never say to anyone else / But what Madonna said really helped, / She said: ‘Boy, you better learn to express yourself!’”