A friend was telling me, in the days leading up to a recent My Morning Jacket concert in Council Bluffs, about his first MMJ concert experience.
The show took place at the Ranch Bowl (R.I.P.) and featured openers The Sleepy Jackson and Lincoln's own Marianas.
He said maybe 50 people attended the show.
My, how times have changed.
Since then, My Morning Jacket has released a trio of albums running the gamut of musical genres, establishing the band as one not to pigeonhole itself within a sound.
And yet the band remains humble. Jim James milled around the lobby of Harrah's Casino last Tuesday, saying hello to fans as they checked into their hotel rooms or headed straight to the bar to imbibe a little before enjoying the night's entertainment.
One of the most interesting things about concerts at the Stir Concert Cove is how they're promoted, attended and received. Most of the shows there are geared towards the baby boomer era or, more generally, the parents and grandparents of today's college students. Those are the people with expendable income, ready to gamble it away without getting too rowdy and boisterous.
If that's the motive for Harrah's, bands like My Morning Jacket shouldn't be invited. What we witnessed from our hotel room prior to the show was a crowd that mixed frat boys with hippies with soccer moms with people who thought the band was from the 1980s hair band era.
More than anything, I think the folks at Harrah's want people to come to venue in hopes of us transferring our money from our pockets to their slot machines. I see more free tickets given out to shows at the Stir than to any other concert hall I've ever been at.
I'm OK with it though, as it means the bands get some fans that might not shell out $30 for the ticket. And as long as the crowd isn't disrespectful to the band or its fans, everybody wins.
By the time My Morning Jacket hit the stage just before 8 p.m. (gotta love those early start times), there were close to 1,000 curious souls milling about in the grassy knoll between the casino and the calm waters of the Missouri River.
MMJ started things off right with the title track from its newest album "Evil Urges." The sounds coming from the stages enormous sound system were exquisite, and the sunset behind us illuminated the stage in a way that I knew we were in for a good time.
The stage lights were on as well, but we wouldn't realize their potential until about an hour later.
I have to admit that I'm a rather casual MMJ fan and besides the few songs that every casual fan knows I'm not one to know names or even choruses. Even so, the friends of mine that came to the show and knew nothing of the band were dancing as frantically as the people who wanted to hear "Off the Record" more than anything (they got their request by the time the second song started).
Personally I wanted to hear "Golden," and about midway through the set my wish was granted. I recognize the song as a staple, but with casino shows I never take anything for granted. The light show hit full blast, and I'm guessing the $5 Budweisers didn't hurt my sense of enthusiasm.
MMJ did a great job of peppering the set with selections from their entire catalog, and one friend who is a die-hard went nuts when a song that had been stricken from the set list for a while, "Phone Went West Off At Dawn," made his day.
A five-song encore included a rousing version of "Wordless Chorus" and ended with the fan favorite "One Big Holiday."
I'm all for bands ending the night with something as upbeat and exciting as how MMJ went out. We jaunted back to our hotel room, drank beers we'd already paid for and wondered how much money we'd lose in the next few hours downstairs.
jeremybuckley@dailynebraskan.com
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