Beyond the Arc

Brent Barry played 14 years in the NBA. He threw out dimes and dunked on lesser men. Now, he dispenses his basketball wisdom on television. But do you know what he would rather be doing? Well, okay, surfing. But after that? Listening to some great tunes. That's right, Brent is a massive music fan. He has impeccable taste and attends live shows all over the country. He makes excellent recommendations and loves to talk about artists. So, of course, Brent begged to have a recurring feature on this blog.

But The D Man had some lingering questions. Primarily, would he be up to the task? Sure, Brent can still throw down and apparently has mad pinball skills. Sure, Brent hooked The D Man up with backstage Pearl Jam action (as written about here). Sure, Brent catches waves with the likes of Vedder and Slater. But could Brent handle the pressure from The D Man's loyal cadre of readers? Could Brent dish the dirt like he could dish the rock? Or would we just hear about people at Phish concerts?

Well, my (obviously made-up) doubts were vanquished when Brent decided to write his first post about My Morning Jacket. The shredding gods of American rock'n'roll. Live in Seattle. The same place where Brent used to rain threes from the Puget Sound. How appropriate, then, that his feature will be called Beyond the Arc. Make it rain, Bones.

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The opening gong might as well have signified that the doors were opening to the path of enlightenment. My Morning Jacket at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle was a transformational evening for me and the roughly 800 attendees. I was familiar with several albums but was not yet ready for the power of the live ball of energy that the band was able to produce, as each song built upon the other, offering up incredible solos and unearthly energy that no album alone can hold. Most of the Circuital tracks made their way to the set list, but the stand out for me was "One Big Holiday." The intro gets me every time and it was crisp and precise, which also describes the entire night's drumming by Patrick Hallahan. (Ed. note: in this more recent version, you can actually see James' face).

Thank you Jim James for haunting my dreams for several weeks following the show. See you at ACL. Amazing how much music I like today has been borrowed by these guys (Band of Horses) and the etherial monstrosities they create. Glad they continue to stay in the lab . . . .