Last night I spent yet another evening at PNC Pavilion, this time to see My Morning Jacket along with Neko Case. Neko hit the stage right at 7pm with her five band-mates. Though I was familiar with her name, I was not familiar with her music, which can best be categorized as alt-country. Neko and the band powered through a quick 45 minutes set full of short songs. The first few that I heard were full of depressing themes and stories, but those gave way to more upbeat songs, which I enjoyed much more.

Neko Case

Once Neko Case’s set ended I figured it would be 8:30 before we saw My Morning Jacket take the stage. Unfortunately that prediction was 10 minutes off, and I was caught out on the plaza when their set started. Fortunately the sound was loud enough that I could hear the opening performance which included the first two songs from their latest album, Circuital, back to back. Shortly after those opening tracks the band launched into two of their earlier singles, “Off the Record” and “I’m Amazed.” These two tracks really got the crowd moving.

My Morning Jacket

I thought last night was my first time seeing My Morning Jacket, but today I realized that I actually saw them at the Mile High Music Festival last summer. I wasn’t very impressed with their performance that day, but last night was a completely different experience. I haven’t seen a rock show like MMJ delivered last night in a long time. Front-man Jim James is one hell of a vocalists and guitar player. His long curled hair constantly flowing around his head as he head-bangs along with the music.

As impressive as Jim James is, I was also impressed with the rest of the band. Even though Jim often has many guitar solos, Carl Broemel on the opposite side of the stage is also a fine guitar player. He also spent many songs on the pedal steel and even one song on the saxophone. Bassist, Tom Blankenship, the only other original member holds down the groove in the center of the stage playing in perfect rhythm with drummer Patrick Hallahan. Hallahan also has a big mop of hair on his head, which flies wildly in the air as he beats on the drum kit. Rounding out the lineup is Bo Koster on keyboards. I liked that he had a real upright piano is his repertoire that added a very clean sound to a couple of songs throughout the night.

Other highlights of the show included “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” along with “One Big Holiday” and the latest single “Holdin’ On To Black Metal.” The band took a quick 4 minute break before returning to play a lengthy 35 minute encore featuring “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with Neko Case and some of her band members on stage. The song was originally recorded by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty. The male and female singing combination worked great with Neko on stage. Once the last note was played the band had been on the stage for roughly two and a half hours! It was a great night of music.

I’ve added a couple of other pictures to the show below. The lighting was really good and I was happy to see it was all LED powered.