slow-dog.entry31.10.2002: "show: john vanderslice and the mountain goats"

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John Vanderslice, The Mountain Goats, and The Court and Spark @ Bottom of the Hill 23 October 2002.

And so I found myself at Bottom of the Hill last week to see John Vanderslice and The Mountain Goats. I was there as Nick's guest ("plus one", in the world of people who get on guestlists).

Just a scant two days before, I had been standing in Slim's, post-Spoon, watching Nick chat with John. And now I was standing at the John Vanderslice show, and Nick was introducing me to John Vanderslice, who has this broad smile and a sort of manic air about him as he leans in a little closer than most people would, and greets you a little more affectionately than you're used to from strangers, and says, "Yeah, you were at Spoon. How are you doing? Thanks for coming."

Maybe forty-five minutes later, John is onstage with the band, and I'm trying to figure out how the studio-nerd-persona my mind had created from listening to the albums is rocking my ass off.

It only took a couple of songs, and then the dumb smile that usually creeps across my face when I'm really enjoying a show appeared. I don't think it disappeared until well after John and the band had walked offstage.

Of course I've skipped the description of the actual set. John played some old stuff, and some new stuff, and his drummer is a mad fiend, and it all adds up to more than I could have hoped for, and more than I can adequately describe. Just go. He will one day come to your city, and you should be there.

And so my week was made, and here it was only Wednesday, and The Mountain Goats had yet to go on. I can't say I was an expert on his music going in to the show. I knew some songs through some mp3s heard a few days before, and I don't know how I didn't know about The Mountain Goats when the sole member of the band also is the driving force behind the popular Last Plane to Jakarta, but there I was, getting crushed by rabid Mountain Goats fans pushing towards the stage 20 minutes before he went on.

I had liked the songs I had heard beforehand, but was prepared to be underwhelmed by a guy and an acoustic guitar, performing AFTER the guy I had come to see. I wasn't. John Darnielle is funny and writes a quality lyric over some quality licks and puts on an entertaining show. And although I don't know exactly when I turned into a fan, there I was, giddy as the rest of them, singing along to Ace of Base's "The Sign."

Rock and Roll Forever!

09:28 PM PST