Last year, after hearing that the lead singer and guitarist for the Mountain Goats had cancer and that as a result they were going to end their touring habit and settle down, I pretty much gave up all hope of ever seeing them live. Somehow, that didn't didn't last for them, and they're touring again. Perhaps the cancer is in remission, or it was all lies to begin with. I have no idea. Nevertheless, last night Sean and I saw The Mountain Goats at the Wonder Ballroom here in Portland. We have this thing where we'll buy tickets a week or two in advance and then on the actual night of the show (mostly if it's a week-night) we say to each other "sooo... how bad do you wanna go?"... Implying that we'd rather sleep/play video games/read/watch a movie/do nothing than actually take the effort to go and "stay out late" (like 11 or 12 pm. we're so old and lazy.) So, although both of us sort of wanted to, neither of us caved last night. Thank goodness. The show was great. The singer (maybe others too -- I have no idea) grew up in Portland, so it was a "very special evening with the Mountain Goats." They played several songs which they introduced saying "please please don't tell your friends that we played this tonight. Lie and tell them we played something else that we always play because we'll never play this anywhere else." They still didn't cover "The Sign", but I didn't have much hope that they would. When they played "No Children" it was exactly like every other communal time listening to that song - a huge loud sing-along where you are as drunk as you want to be regardless of how much (if any) alcohol you've imbibed. John, the singer, didn't even use the microphone for 90% of the song. So good. So wonderful. John also continually said "I am SO GLAD I'm here. This is SO good!" and informed everyone that his 6th grade teacher who encouraged him so much to be who he is today etc etc. was there. That's a good crowd and a good vibe. I liked it. It was the kind of show you could go to and have a good time at even if you didn't know jack squat about any of their music.
I bet it was skin cancer or something. That doesn't really count anyway. ;)
