I have seen the best live band on the planet

Imagine for a moment you are taken back to 1974 and you are in line to see a sold out club show featuring Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, or even Ted Nugent (sans politics). Then imagine, high expectations intact, that the band absolutely blows you out of the water and rocks like nothing you have seen before.

Now imagine it is 2005 and you have been waiting since the demise of Soundgarden, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and the Screaming Trees for a band to make you want to grab your a beer and scream as loud as possible for more rock. My Morning Jacket is that band.

Simply put, My Morning Jacket is the best live band I have seen in quite some time. It's rare that a band playing live can sound so much better than they do on their albums, especially when their albums are fantastic already. My Morning Jacket did that at the Showbox last night.

My Morning Jacket opened with Wordless Chorus and It Beats For You from their new album "Z". Both songs showcased Jim Jame's reverbed falsetto and at the same time showcased the band's willingness to expand past their alt-country roots. In fact, I would say My Morning Jacket is as close to Wilco and Radiohead live as they are to Lynryd Skynyrd. Keyboards flowed throughout the night along with a occassional processed drum beats that reminded me of both bands. Processed drum beats? Yes, but nothing that took away from the sounds of the dueling guitar jams.

Their new album is a more straight-forward and song oriented than their previous two releases which focused more on alt-country and southern style jam-rock. However, these new songs live sound just as rocking as the earlier material. Particulary impressive were What a Wonderful Man ,Off the Record, and Gideon. All three sounded as if they had been part of the setlist for years.

One Big Holiday and Golden from "It Still Moves" were also big crown favorites. However, nothing prepared me for the onslaught that was Run-Thru. Run-Thru was extended about three or four extra minutes and the mid song bass line had the crowd boogying down in unison (and I mean literally boogying as in the "Shake Your Tailfeather/Ray Charles/Blues Brothers kind of way). When the song ended everyone thrust their $4 beers into the air and screamed in appreciation. Even the three sorority chicks behind us who thought that "rock concert" really meant "time to chat about useless shit" were highly impressed. Jim told the crowd that My Morning Jacket were going to "tenderize us" and indeed they did. (I know that sounds really cheesy, but what the hell? How often do I get a chance to glorify such a fantastic show)

Obviously I had a great time at the show, but the coolest thing was seeing Rachelle's jaw drop after Jim James did a two or three minute guitar solo literally in the crowd. She just kind of looked at me like "are you kidding me, is this for real?". Yes, they were that good.