Sharon Van Etten
Anthony B
Sword
Grace Potter
Atmosphere
Ray Lamontagne
Florence + the Machine
My Morning Jacket
Primus
Big Boi
Black Angels
Lil Wayne
Arcade Fire
Ratatat

Photos by Debi Del Grande.

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My Morning Jacket made their return to the Greek Theatre & played a high energy two hour set to a crowd of very excited fans. Los Angeles band Avi Buffalo opened.

Setlist
1) At Dawn
2) Golden
3) It Beats
4) Gideon
5) Anytime
6) Mahgeetah
7) War Begun
Circuital
9) Where To Begin
10) Touch Me pt.1
11) Dancefloors
12) Tonight
13) Wonderful
14) Dondate
15) I’m Amazed
16) Highly Suspicious
17) Smokin From Shootin
18) End of Run Thru
19) Touch Me pt.2

—

20) Wordless
21) Off the Record
22) Steam Engine
23) One Big Holiday

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The following ten records were my favorites during the “aughts” or “O”s or “aughties” or whatever we’re referring to them as now that it’s the “tens” or “teens” or “tweens” or what have you.

 My Morning Jacket – At Dawn

Aimee Mann – Bachelor No. 2, or The Last Remains of the Dodo

Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Benji Hughes – A Love Extreme

Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Lucinda Williams – World Without Tears

Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts of the Great Highway

Martha Wainwright – Martha Wainwright

Radiohead – Kid A

Gillian Welch – The Revelator Collection DVD

-Leslie Stevens

The Monsters promised us a 2.5-hour set of music from their recently released album and individual repertoires. So the evening began with a couple rousing numbers performed by the whole band (plus Will Johnson on the drums) all snazzily dressed in suits and ties. And then they handed the show over to Mr. Ward.

For those of you who haven’t seen Cool Runnings eight times, all you need to know is that four Jamaican athletes—a nice one, a mean one, a funny one, and an intellectual one—overcome their personal differences to bobsled their way to the 1988 Winter Olympics! It is truly a tale for the generations.

Anyway, M. Ward is the kind, calm, elder-brother bandmate. You can tell by his sweet voice he just wants everyone to get along. He sang us several soothing M. Ward tunes, including “Chinese Translation” and “One Hundred Million Years,” asking Jim out at one point and Conor out at another, a tradition the band members continued throughout the show. This was easily the most pleasant portion of the evening, though, with M. uncharacteristically unbaseball-capped, making eye contact and generally enjoying himself for our enjoyment too.

Then Conor took the stage. Conor is the disagreeable one, who barked and scowled and performed in his own style seemingly separate from the band. When M. joined him on “Smoke Without Fire,” though, his anger eased and they were back in the same bobsled again. (M. is like that.)

After a few Monsters numbers, the light turned on Jim. Jim is the Doug E. Doug member of the group, entertaining yet utterly passionate, and by just being himself, capturing the most attention. He sang “Bermuda Highway Blues” and “Look At You” to a thoroughly giddy audience, and called the rest of the band out to finish off the night. Mogis, by the way, is the intellectual one—so excellent at what he does, all we noticed was that the band sounded amazing.

The group wrapped up the show with stunning renditions of My Morning Jacket’s “Smokin From Shooting” and the Monsters’ own “His Master’s Voice,” proving that despite the comparisons you might make and favorites you might pick while listening to an M. Ward / Bright Eyes / My Morning Jacket concert, the Monsters of Folk can still come together and carry that bobsled across the finish line like heroes. I tried to do the slow-single-clap-turning-into-full-applause thing, but the audience was already cheering too wildly.

—Amber Hollingsworth