This Saturday, I had the joy of seeing My Morning Jacket in concert at the beautiful, one of a kind, Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. It was my third time seeing them, and my first concert since pre-COVID. As they always do, MMJ kicked ass, starting their set with the hard rocking, riff-spitting “One Big Holiday,” followed by the classic, “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream, Pt. 2” (and yes, Pt. 1 was played later!), and then into “Wordless Chorus.”

Their setlist was an epic spectrum of their entire discography. They played at least one song from every single album except for their first (and worst, IMO), The Tennessee Fire. They even played one of my favorite MMJ songs, “Steam Engine.”

They played their two newest songs, one of which, “Love Love Love,” I started this week’s mixtape with. It’s a great song with a distorted guitar’s bull rush of rhythm, constantly pounding and leading the track while the Carl Broemel falsetto of “Na Na Naaaa” adds a catchy hook.

One track from the show, “Wasted,” was an unknown to me. It’s the second to last track on their most recent album, Waterfall II, and the track has one of the best changes of trajectory (coming in at 2:20) that MMJ has ever done.

All images by @jayblakesberg taken @greekberkeley

“Wasted” takes a route you would never expect it to take, particularly because listening to the first two minutes of this track doesn’t add much to the imagination, and then BAM, we go to funky town on the keys (as the rainbow lights shined down while they played live) and then the horns come in, and then the song comes back around, jumping in line with the original trajectory of the track. What. A. Song. So cool to see live.

The concert was a reminder that MMJ stands in the Mount Rushmore of rock bands over the past two decades. There is an aura MMJ exudes, one that bands rarely shine.

Here’s the setlist of the show if you were curious: