My Morning Jacket Premieres John Lennon Cover, Welcomes Melt’s Veronica Stewart-Frommer In Berkeley

On Friday (August 22), My Morning Jacket closed out their summer tour on a high note at The Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California. Standout moments of the Louisville-based rockers’ 21-song concert included a John Lennon cover debut, a guest appearance from Veronica Stewart-Frommer of opening band Melt and a tribute to the late Sly Stone.

MMJ kicked off their set with “Out In The Open,” one of four tracks from their recently released is album played in Berkeley. The quintet then served up “Lay Low” between At Dawn cuts “X-Mas Curtain” and “Honest Man.” From there, the band devoted the next portion of the show to songs from their last three LPs, as is numbers “Time Waited” and “Everyday Magic” were broken up by The Waterfall II’s “Still Thinkin” and were followed by “Least Expected” off 2021’s My Morning Jacket.

After the ensuing “Gideon,” My Morning Jacket premiered their take on John Lennon’s “Love.” The Beatles co-founder originally released the song on his 1970 debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. MMJ frontman Jim James sang “Love” with little instrumental accompaniment as the lead-in to a 14-minute “Steam Engine.”

The extended “Steam Engine” and similarly adventurous “Cobra” were followed by Veronica Stewart-Frommer’s guest spot. Stewart-Frommer joined voices with Jim James on “Here In Spirit” and “Holdin On To Black Metal,” reprising collaborations first played earlier in the August tour.

My Morning Jacket punctuated their main set, sans guest assistance, with a run of “I Think I’m Going To Hell,” “Victory Dance,” “Die For It” and “Wordless Chorus.” The band then started the encore with their first “Librarian” since April and offered “Spring (Among The Living)” from 2015’s The Waterfall.

“Phone Went West” was chosen to end the concert and summer tour. Jim James slickly inserted lyrics from Sly & The Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” into the performance of the At Dawn favorite. Sly Stone, who died in June at age 82, was raised in the Bay Area.

Watch fan-shot video of My Morning Jacket’s “Phone Went West”/”Thank You” performance below:

Stream official soundboard audio of MMJ’s tour closer at the Berkeley Greek via nugs.net:

My Morning Jacket returns to the stage on Friday, September 5 to headline the Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina. The fall leg of the band’s 2025 tur begins on October 8 in Washington D.C.