There’s something to be said for perseverance. Since 1991, John Darnielle, the leader — and often times, only member — of The Mountain Goats has almost unflinchingly dedicated himself to his music. Releasing album after album, some self released cassettes, some indie studio albums, all very much Darniellian (yes, I just made up an adjective out of his name).
This career was on display at the El Rey theater in L.A., with a set that spanned years of material in the seemingly quick 24 song set. Darnielle and company, now accompanied by Peter Hughes and Jon Wurster, gave the fans a great mess of tracks from their newest release All Eternals Deck (including the show opener “Liza Forever Minnelli”) and fan favorites like “Broom People” from their fantastic The Sunset Tree. The pre-encore show concluded with what is probaby the closest thing to a hit they have in “This Year” (also from Tree).
After a roaring cry for an encore from the audience, the band did their due diligence and jumped into their encore. After a few songs, including a cover of Jawbreaker’s “Boxcar” they left the stage again but came back for a second encore. Before starting into this, Darnielle asked the crowd if they’d rather the band play a song, come back, and play a third encore or, just play two songs the dedicated crowd responded as you would expect.
Check out the full setlist here (as well as hear the songs).
