Photos by Steve Aycock
My Morning Jacket entertained the crowd at Firefly Distillery Friday night, performing nonstop jams that spanned a handful of albums in the band’s vast discography.
The Louisville, Kentucky, quintet fronted by iconic singer-songwriter Jim James consists of bassist Tom Blankenship, drummer Patrick Hallahan, guitarist Carl Broemel and keyboardist Bo Koster.
James traded the more elaborate stage costume donned at High Water Festival last year that included a cape for a simple black T-shirt and heart-shaped sunglasses, at times slinging his synth instead of electric and acoustic guitar.
The set opened with the transcendent tune “Gideon” from the 2005 album Z. After the swirling track “Spring (Among the Living)” from the 2015 album The Waterfall, the band cranked out “Lucky to Be Alive.” James was all smiles, hugging his electric guitar and swaying happily. The song’s apropos lyric “technology came and stole my money again” rang as true today as it did when the song was released in 2021.
James switched to acoustic guitar for “Circuital,” a simplistic, sage song from the 2011 album of the same name, which had the crowd “spinning out, gracefully, goin’ nowhere, quickly.” Then came the gnarly, blasting “One Big Holiday” and the sad, beautiful “Knot Comes Loose.” James made sure to tell the crowd how delighted and honored he was to be there.
Jacket performed “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Pt. 1” and “Pt. 2” from the 2008 album Evil Urges, and James hopped on the keys momentarily during the nonstop banger “Pt. 2.”
As “Golden” waved across the hot night, the crowd’s voices coalesced loudly like a choir. “Sometimes life can be so sweet and sometimes life is so hard, but sometimes it’s so beautiful,” James said as the song ended.
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