BY JILL POOLE We should ALL dance like John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. As if we just have to move with the joy of the music and ...
BY JILL POOLE
We should ALL dance like John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. As if we just have to move with the joy of the music and we have no choice about it. You don’t care who is watching, or how you appear. So much of the Mountain Goats music is about the differences and difficulties of life. You don’t fit in at school? There’s a song for that. You have a difficult home life? There’s a whole album about that. You’re a drug-addled celebrity calling the FBI about a Japanese horror movie? Their latest song is about that. The Mountain Goats truly offer something for every[weird]one and put on an amazing live show that draws one of the most eclectic audiences you’ll see. Many longtime, loyal Mountain Goats fans turned out for this show - I met “T-Shirt Girl” who designed her own tMG shirt 10 years ago and has brought it to every show since, apparently Darnielle has seen it from the stage and gave her the name. (Pretty sure I saw her later in the evening dancing enthusiastically in her front row seat)
Saturday night at DPAC was a home show for the Mountain Goats who are based in the Durham area and it really felt like the band was happy to be home. Darnielle even joked about the bus picking him up at his own front door. John Darnielle, Matt Douglas (sax/guitar/keys), John Wurster (drums), and Cameron Ralston (bass) and a surprise for the Durham audience: a few guests from the NC Symphony. Led by Karen Galvin on violin, Erin Zehngut on violin, Kristen Beard on viola, and Rosalind Leavell on cello, the strings were a wonderful addition for the first and last parts of the set.
There was a great rapport with the hometown crowd, with Darnielle picking up a fan’s “bop of the summer” comment after “Shallow Grave” and then, referring to the same fan “I hope this isn’t true of you but you DID come to a Mountain Goats’ show” before playing “You Were Cool.” The crowd roared its approval.
One of the night’s funniest moments came as Darnielle spoke about his love for more traditional country music and began sarcastically quoting lines from the Lee Ann Womack “country” hit “I Hope You Dance.” As the crowd laughed along he declared “my hater days are behind me” and launched into “No Children” which brought the previously politely (and reluctantly) seated crowd to their feet to sing every word with him. “I think you all know this one” was his intro to “This Year” to end the show and the crowd continued to stand and sing along. The four-song encore included some crowd favorites, “Song for Layne Staley” from the new album Days, and “Up the Wolves” before concluding with “See America Right.”
Earlier in the evening, Darnielle introduced one of his songs by stating “I’m not worthy to touch the hem of Mary Gauthier’s garment.” Gauthier (with Jamie Harris), was the opener for the DPAC show and received a standing ovation from the crowd for her set. Songwriters are storytellers at their core and Gauthier is a prime example of that. The audience was visibly moved by her stories of her work with veterans and their spouses, and amused by her quotes from her mother. Her albums Soldier of Fortune and Rifles and Rosary Beads were co-written with US veterans and their families. Gauthier clearly puts her talent to work for the good of her politics, and her songs often offer haunting, beautiful insights into the struggles of others. She ended her set with 2005’s “Mercy Now:”
“My church and my country could use a little mercy now.”
Words even more relevant in 2026 than 2005.
Set List
"Armies of the Lord"
"Cold at Night"
"Doc Gooden"
"Fishing Boat"
"Crying on Eddie Nash's Grave"
"Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds"
"Shallow Grave"
"You Were Cool"
"Running Away With What Freud Said"
"Untitled Song for the Singer From Viking"
"Steal Smoked Fish"
"Younger"
"Days"
"Candlebox"
"Through This Fire"
"Done Bleeding"
"Cadaver Sniffing Dog"
"No Children"
"This Year"
Encore
"Song for Layne Staley"
"Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1"
"Up the Wolves"
"See America Right"
- [message]
- JILL POOLE
It’s Christmas. I think I was 7. And there’s an album with my presents. The Everly Brothers Greatest Hits. I was hooked - I still have that record and a few more. On my 16th birthday, I got a job just to buy a real stereo, and more records. I still have all that “vinyl” as we call it today, and my 1977 Advent speakers connect to a Sonos system now.
When I was younger I had a love-hate relationship with live shows but it’s all love now. And I always watched the photographers in the pit. (And tried to take the perfect shot myself on an increasingly capable iphone) But for the last few years I’ve had an actual camera again and it’s so much better.
I want people who couldn’t BE there, who couldn’t get up to the stage - I want them to see what I saw - to feel what I felt.
You can’t hear a photograph, but sometimes... if it’s a good shot - it’s almost as if you could.
Read Jill's posts here.
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