Was listening to some new My Morning Jacket yesterday when up popped some old MMJ on the iPod -- specifically, "One Big Holiday" from the band's March 15, 2002, Rubber Gloves stopover. A month earlier the band had played Trees. They came through here a lot back then: Trees again in June '02 (opening for Guided by Voices), the Galaxy Club on July 19 (with Ben Kweller), a Good Records in-store the day after that
, then back for a Gypsy Tea Room show in September. Three years later MMJ still fit into the GTR. But now the band isn't coming through town at all: The closest we get, for now, is that Tuesday-night streaming show with special guest Erykah Badu, whose in-concert staple "Tyrone" made that Denton set list nine years back.
Those two early '02 shows, pre-major, were special, worth grabbing and savoring on this breezy, sticky Sunday. That was the mid-March Zac Crain and I spent South by Southwest following MMJ from a jam-packed Buffalo Billiards showcase to the beer-soaked backyard party at Yarddog the next afternoon, where I spent a long time chatting up Jim James like some fanboy with a sunburned buzz. (I missed the covers-heavy Urban Outfitters show -- and where's that boot?)
So enjoy. Dig in. The two local shows above from early '02 are part of what's known as The Magnix MMJ Live Recordings Archive project . But there's more. So much more.
And to think. I was going to post an interview my interview with Mike Rawlings about the DISD this morning. What was I thinking? Tomorrow. Maybe.