Hip To Be Square

It's been awhile since I caught some orchestral music. I love seeing a good symphonic piece every now and then. While I was thrown for a loop at first when I heard that the Boston Pops would be playing without My Morning Jacket for the first hour of the night, it ended up being a good strategy on the part of the Pops and My Morning Jacket. One full hour of MMJ and the Pops was enough and well worth it. This wasn't your typical MMJ show where Jim James and Co. throw their locks out over the crowd and blow you away with their distorted reverbed effects. While the reverb sound was still apparent, it was the full backing orchestra that really took front stage. And I didn't really focus in on this aspect until about the second or third song. At first, I said to myself, "MMJ is sounding kind of flat right now". But in reality, it was just the Orchestra drowning them out. You had to focus on the strings, horns and percussions of the orchestra to really appreciate this show. If you went just wanting to hear MMJ rock out their songs off of "Z", then you came seeing the wrong show. There's no question that a straight up MMJ show is more rocking then what we saw on Wednesday night, or Thursday night if that's when you went. But there is also no question that it was well worth the experience.

You really couldn't have picked a better rock group to compose symphonic music over. It worked so well with their sound and Jim's voice sounded down right immaculate inside Symphony Hall.

Check out MMJ with the Pops on Letterman, here.

Read an article on the shows by the Boston Globe, here.

Download a couple tracks from MMJ's album, "Z" below and buy their album, here.

It Beats for You
Off the Record

Also, I can't forget to mention that there were 3 other bands that were showcased at this show - Unbusted, Jake Brennan & The Confidence Men and The Slip. Didn't see Unbusted but caught a glimpse of Jake & Co. and from what I heard, I enjoyed their sound. Jake has a great voice and they've got that retro reverb thing going on that I can't get enough of. And of course, The Slip. Once again, I'm looking forward to hearing their new album, when ever it gets released.