Monsters of Long... Very Long Sets

I went down to the Troxy on Commercial Rd last night to see Monsters of Folk. Conner Oberst & Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket, M. Ward of the M. Ward Catalogue and for the tour on drums "the swiss army knife of indie rock" Will Johnson.

So doors opened at 7.30 and we headed down at about 8 thinking we would miss the the first support act only to find that MoF had already started, what? They were on at 8 on the dot, so wheres the support act we thought? Turns out we were in for a long night no support act just the band doing their album and various songs from their own respective bands.

Another oddity of the night was the insane amount of security, the ban on photos and mobile phones and the split pit, where the front was semi empty and the back was heaving, so no photos I'm afraid (well apart from my ticket to prove I did go!) anywho we were here to hear some of the most established American folksters and thats what we heard. We got a good helping of Bright Eyes tracks which were incredible, a couple of slow ones and a couple of roaring belters using the haunting vocals of Yim Yames. The set built up and soothed down, with the band swapping instruments after almost every song, changing the dynamic from country, to folk, to rock. They even changed up the line up for about an hour in the middle of the show, just keeping a couple of members on at any one time. Mr. Yames took control bringing one of his band mate up one at a time, heartily saying how proud he was of each of his 'kids'! The surprise of the show was their drummer Will Johnson who got out from behind the kit to sing and strum on what for me was one of the best tracks of the show.

After a beautifully quite hour of folk they band reconvened on stage the blast us with an assortment of epic and haunting folk rock tracks. After 3 hours they left the stage. My back killing me and the crowd starting to fizzle out we thought and somewhat hoped that was it, just so we could rest. But no they came back on.

Playing two Bright Eyes classics in now typically epic style. Another Travelin' Song first and Conor played it with a characteristic pained voice but with a more bouncy backing from the others. Building the song up and up Conor stands on the kick drum one foot on the tom and stamps his foot till the kit starts to smash and he finishes by kicking the cymbals over and breaking whatever he can reach. So finally that must be it...but know the roadies are back on stage reconstructing the drums. Then one final song, this time Mr. Oberst behind the piano, surely nothing to break here, but sure enough by the end of the song and finally the end of the set, he pushes the piano over down the stairway to the back stage door and stumbles off stage.

The house lights go up. 3 hours 15 minutes later Monsters of Folk leave the stage for the last time. It was epic, bigger than epic. It was personal at times but most notably of all it was long, very very very long.