My Morning Jacket Comes Up Big At Red Rocks

Words & Images by: Andrew Bruss

My Morning Jacket :: 8.14.2015 :: Red Rocks :: Morrison, CO

Read Andrew’s take on the concert after the gallery.

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My Morning Jacket is going to run into trouble if they keep raising the bar they’ve set for themselves. Then again, based on the three hour, career highlight of a show they put on at Red Rocks Amphitheater right outside of Denver, that just isn’t in the cards.

The majesty of a capacity crowd at the natural wonder of an amphitheater, compounded by the first-ever webcast of a headlining show and it’s not hard to understand why expectations were high. Regardless of the genre, every artist that plays Red Rocks knows it’s a sacred space and want to put on a show fans in every market will be talking about. Jacket accomplished that goal last time they played here three years prior and this time around, they were also performing for a paying audience at home.

Fortunately for their two audiences, MMJ is a band that regularly rises to the occasion and the higher the stakes, the better the show tends to be. Their most revered gig was a four-hour Bonnaroo late night set that took place in the pouring rain and their New Years Eve shows are always among their best sets of the year. Not only did they rise to the occasion at Red Rocks but they shattered audience expectations. For over three hours, MMJ dished out 29 songs that covered every one of their seven LP’s, showcased material off of their latest album, The Waterfall, hit on all the classics, and even shelled out a few deep cuts for the setlist geeks to drool over.

Highlights included the an ending to the proper portion of their set with “Mahgeetah,” only to come back to the stage to perform “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” with Brandi Carlile (the venue’s headliner the following night). Hearing “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 1&2” was a journey in and of itself and even though fans have come to expect MMJ to close their concerts with “One Big Holiday,” preceding it with the a slammed-to-the-pavement ass kicker like “Run Thru” and you’ve got a one-two punch that effectively KO’ed the audience for a unanimous win.

More than any one song, the highlight was seeing an already hyper-animated group of performers taking their enthusiasm to a whole other level. Less than one month ago, MMJ opened for and backed Roger Waters of Pink Floyd at the Newport Folk Festival. No offense to Waters, but their showmanship at Newport Folk was a backstage warm-up compared to the explosive performance they brought to Red Rocks.

MMJ has always been regarded as a killer live act but the on-stage dynamics have changed over the years and the trends fans have noticed on this tour were underscored at Red Rocks. Google “One Big Holiday” and you’ll find video of longhaired dudes rocking their brains out. However, as a result of a 2008 performance-related back injury, front man Jim James’ ability to wile out like his partner in crime, Carl Broemel (guitar), has waned. The content of The Waterfall addresses James coming to terms with the pain and permanent damage he’s faced and this past May when the tour kicked off, James often seemed stiff and struggling to be the performer he was born to be as a result of his physical limitations. That said, as this tour has progressed, he’s seemed to recognize what he can and cannot do, and while he’s not as active as he was circa 2004, he has harvested this frustration and metamorphosized it into a mysterious charisma that does a whole lot more without that much less. Taking a page out of Michael Jackson’s playbook, at times James just stood still and stared out at his audience, completely motionless, while they joyfully begged for a break in the freeze of the moment.

At another point in the set, he wandered off stage, behind the lighting rig attached to the drum riser and continued playing sight unseen. Eventually he casually strolled towards the wall of natural red rock at the very back of the stage and played with his back to the crowd, seemingly deep in thought, while his four band mates kept things exciting from the frontlines. Through the first two and a half hours of the show, James only addressed his audience once, but in doing so, sent out a hearty greeting and a message of universal love and acceptance.

This was a performance that has put some of their most storied performances to shame. New Years Eve’s, festival late nights, Roger Waters, Symphony Hall, none of them can compare to what Jacket brought to Red Rocks during the month of August in the year of 2015. By every metric, My Morning Jacket reaffirmed their status as the Greatest American Rock Band of the 21st Century, and if you haven’t gotten that memo, you are seriously missing out.