My Morning Jacket Performs New Album At Secret Shows

Louisville rockers My Morning Jacket are set to kick off a World Tour on May 15 at Athens’ Georgia Theatre, but the band wanted to see how songs off the soon-to-be-released The Waterfall would work in front of a live audience ahead of the tour. So MMJ gathered a small crowd of devotees for a pair of surprise hometown shows that took place at Headliners over the past two nights.

My Morning Jacket had last played Headliners way back in 2003, before they hit it big. The band invited friends, family and 120 members of their fan club to the intimate Louisville venue on Monday and Tuesday nights. Jim James and Co. presented a set featuring all 10 songs off The Waterfall in the same running order as the LP both nights. Then, MMJ treated fans to an encore of “oldies.” Monday night’s show featured the live debuts of all the tracks from The Waterfall with the exceptions of “Big Decisions,” “Compound Fracture” and “Only Memories Remain” which were debuted earlier this year during One Big Holiday in Mexico.

Monday’s encore started with a Jim James solo version of “Bermuda Highway” and continued with full-band takes on Carl Broemel’s “Carried Away” as well as “Master Plan” and the New Basement Tapes tune “Down On The Bottom.” Last night’s encore featured “Wonderful (The Way I Feel),” “Old September Blues,” “Steam Engine” and “Honest Man.”

So far no audio or video from either show has surfaced. Louisville paper Courier-Journal was on hand and has shared a review and photos.