the great pumpkin

We are going to light out for the Territories in a van with two acoustic guitars, some notebooks, our soundman Brandon and a pouch full of charms against ill omen. We are going to get elemental. We are going to stomp our feet and hammer at the strings until we get what we want from them. We, a couple of guys named John, are going to tour, is what we’re going to do. We’re going to stand alone onstage and play our guitars and sing old songs & new, and then we’ll probably play together. We are going to sit side by side with our acoustic guitars like two out of the five guys on the Five Man Acoustical Jam album, only with fewer Tesla songs. Because the whole point of playing an acoustic guitar is not to unplug. It’s to get raw and draw blood.

-John Darnielle

There are very few things that could drag me away from going to see Converge play just a couple blocks from my house, but John Darnielle is one of them.

When I saw that John and John (Darnielle and Vanderslice respectively) were going on tour, just the two of them, and a couple guitars I was instantly excited.  When I saw that they were playing New York City as, part of the Wordless Music Series, and that the show was going to be at The Society for Ethical Culture my decision was made.  The Society for Ethical Culture is a Humanist Religious Community…if you are unfamiliar with what Humanism is I think Kurt Vonnegut Jr. put it best:

Do you know what a Humanist is? I am honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that functionless capacity. We Humanists try to behave well without any expectation of rewards or punishments in an afterlife. We serve as best we can the only abstraction with which we have any real familiarity, which is our community. -11/6/03

The Mountain Goats are always good live, but recently John as been touring with Peter Hughes (well I guess he has been touring with John for quite a while) and Jon Wurster, their drummer and comedian, is a new addition.  I like the full band set up, but I yearn for his solo shows.

Back in March of last year the Goats played the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and at the beginning of the set John came out and played solo for almost a full hour.  This marked the best Mountain Goats show I had seen since he played Sound Fix with Franklin Bruno…and I am have high hopes that the show at the Society for Ethical Culture.

John and John’s Tour Dates:

March
18 – Asheville, NC, the Grey Eagle
20 – Norfolk, VA, the Atticus Theatre
21 – Washington, DC, Sixth and I Synagogue
24 – Northampton, MA, Pearl Street
25 – Somerville, MA, the Sommerville Theatre
27 – New York, NY, the Society for Ethical Culture (part of the Wordless Music series)
29 – Gambier, OH, Kenyon College
30 – Oberlin, OH, Oberlin College
April
1 – Chicago, IL, Epiphany Episcopal (tickets here)
2 – Champaign, IL, Courtyard Café at University of Illinois
3 – Iowa City, IA, the Mill, Mission Creek Music Festival
4 – Richmond, IN, Earlham College
6 – Bloomington IN, Buskirk-Chumley Theater

As always with the Mountain Goats get your tickets in advance…they seem to sell out every show they play in NYC.

I’ve posted elsewhere, and I’ll post it again…I think this Mountain Goats video, “Sax Rohmer #1,” is supurb:

Photo by Derek Goodwin via 4AD.

Tags: Humanism, John Vanderslice, Mountain Goats, nyc, Society for Ethical Culture, Wordless Music Series