Slowly over the years I’ve become a bigger and bigger My Morning Jacket (and therefore Jim James) fan. When I was 16 in high school I signed up for that CD service, which was like 10 buck a month and they sent you like 10 cds to start off and then a couple cds a month? I can’t remember what that was called but if anyone knows please leave it in the comments.
Anyways, one of the first 10 albums I got I chose My Morning Jackets album Z, mainly because of the artwork. I had no idea what to expect and although I liked a few songs on the album I wasn’t a HUGE fan. I did really like the song “Gideon” off that album and still regularly play it to this day.
I remember then hearing them again in one of those free cds you get in Guitar World magazine or whatever. The song was “Amazed” and I really like that song as well. I got their next cd and kind of the same story, I liked a few songs but wasn’t a huge fan. Fastforward a few years and I got their latest “waterfalls” album and finally got to see the in concert at the paramount and was absolutely blown away.
Probably around that time Jim James album Eternally Even came out and I completely loved that album. So good and surreal. Almost one of my favorite albums of all time. His latest album came out “Uniform Distortion” and I bought the record and have listened to it all the way through at LEAST 30 times, probably much more.
To change topics super quickly, I saw Primus live at the paramount a couple of years and it was kind of the same story as with My Morning Jacket. It was a phenomenal show that absolutely blew my mind. One of the better live shows I’ve ever seen, which then sent me on a couple month spree of listening to Primus nonstop.
OK, so after that lengthy introduction, when I saw that Jim James and Claypool Lennon Delirium were co-headlining, I didn’t even think about it, I immediately bought 4 tickets. I just new that a live show containing both of them was going to be amazing, and I was not disappointed.
I sold two tickets to Eric from Mister Master, who then sold them to Brandt and Erik which was a cool surprise. I sold my extra ticket to Ben, and Jake Flatt ended up buying a ticket last minute to join in on the fun.
Jake and I pregamed at Chop Suey and Ben met us there. We had a few drinks and left just as a drag show was starting. Ben was nice enough to be DD and drove us down to Showbox SoDo where we went to this bar and pregamed a bit more. Jake bought 2 pitchers to kick it off and while we attempted to get those out of the way we ran into Dave Place from Hobosexual and had a long convo with him.
By the time we walked into the show we had missed most of the first act. I only caught one song but never caught their name. They sounded good from what I heard.
Claypool Lennon Delirium was on next and they did not disappoint. We were unable to get super close for the show but from what I could see they both were wearing some crazy hats. Sean Lennon was smaller than I pictured, at least when compared to Les Claypool. So maybe he was taller than I remember? Who knows.
Anyways what really blew my mind was just how much some of the songs sounded like LSD Beatles tunes. Sean definitely has his father’s voice, and it helps to have the drippiness of les claypool on guitar. There was a few moments I swore what they were playing was from some of the Beatles trippy back catalogue.
The bass tone was unbelievable. Seriously the stuff clay pool is able to pull off and actually have it sound good is amazing. So deep and full but doesn’t sacrifice the mid to highs somehow. I only wish I could have been closer to the stage to really see some more of the musicians in the back. Sean can definitely shred guitar, I did pick up on that much.
Once they were done everyone cleared out for drinks and to the use the restroom. I went quickly and bought a Jim James tshirt, luckily there was 0 line. This is also where Ben, Jake, and I took the chance to sneak up nearly to the front. I’d say we were about 4 to 5 rows of people back. We waited there for what seemed like forever. I’m not sure what time it was at this point but I’d guess that Jim came on around 10:15 to 10:20.
I always get to these moments in writing my little blog where I try to describe in detail the show and how good it was and sometimes it just seems kind of pointless. Like I couldn’t possibly recap how great of a time it was and how good it sounded, but I’ll try.
First off Jim comes off like a complete rockstar, he’s just got that attitude. The lights on stage help, as they were set up surrounding him to give the look of almost a stadium “all eyes on him” kind of thing.
See what I mean?
Most of the songs that were played were off the last album uniform distortion and it sounded SO GOOD. Blew the record away. I mean I go back and listen to the record and just wish it was produced better, although I doubt that’s the sound he was going for. Seriously a lot of the licks you hear on the record don’t have that “force” behind the like they do live.
I knew almost every song played, I maybe didn’t know one. He played a couple songs off of eternally even and it was great to see how he pulled those off without all the keyboards and production behind them. I almost preferred them better.
I definitely needed a good show out to help inspire me in my own band’s venture and this served the purpose for sure. One of my favorite shows I’ve been to and I was happy to be able to make it out with my friends. Halfway through the show Ben pulled out his pipe and I smoked some weed right there in the middle of the crowd, which I haven’t done in YEARS. Was a great feeling to let loose and enjoy the moment.
I caught a snippet of the show on video which I’ll upload below. It’s kind of shitty but I didn’t want to put my phone in peoples faces. You’ll see how close I was and how good it sounded though. 10/10 would definitely recommend catching Jim James if I were you! One of my highlights of 2019 for sure.