Live music review: My Morning Jacket got inducted into ACL TV Hall of Fame and I missed it

I sent The Cosmic Clash crew a text about the upcoming Austin City Limits taping of My Morning Jacket, when I realized the band was being inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame on Friday, August 1 by Cameron Crowe. Our editor responded to say it was all mine since I was the first to mention it. I had previous plans to see Dead cover band Deadeye play for Jerry Garcia’s birthday as well as catching the live streams for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and the 60th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead Money Grab happening at the same time, but I’m flexible and enjoy seeing MMJ and their bandleader Jim James anytime I can.

I was super excited to catch the Hall of Fame portion, but unfortunately a work deadline at my new job kept me until 7:42 p.m. with a hard start of 8:00 p.m. for the show since it’s being broadcast on the soon-to-be-defunct-and-defunded PBS. More on that topic in a moment.

Thankfully for my late-ass, the band didn’t go on until 8:30 p.m. and my cousin and I took our seats before the band took the stage to perform. MMJ didn’t come out and chat, they just got right into the set with a chill song from their latest album, is. As is custom for my reviews, I like to give a little background on the bands and artists I cover. For My Morning Jacket, I’m a casual fan. I’ve never paid to see them, but have seen them a few times (along with two or three Jim James solo shows) since my first MMJ show in 2010 at Denver’s Mile High Fest. I’d recently separated from my ex-husband, and a friend offered me all access tickets to the festival since they were selling the brand I worked for at the time in the VIP mini-grocery store. I jumped at the chance and had to convince my boss to let it happen. Considering she’d taken the whole marketing team to Lollapalooza without me, I felt she owed me. Y’all, I was the only person working in the office during that Lollapalooza. A friend gave me airline miles, and another friend gave me a place to stay and I was off! The MMJ set was around sunset and those buttery Jim James vocals floated through the air to greet me as I grabbed a spot on a random bleacher to catch part of the set. I thought, “this is perfect festival music.”

Fast forward to another time I caught the band at the now defunct Austin Music Hall in 2015, and was blessed to experience the set from VIP. Someone asked to borrow my pipe and to repay the favor, refilled it, gave it back to me and left. Turns out it was full of D.M.T. Ruined a really great show.

Which brings us to Friday and me missing Cameron Crowe induct My Morning Jacket into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame. They’ve played on the legendary PBS show four times since 2006.

Speaking of PBS, I found playing the song, “I’m Amazed” to be extremely poignant for the times we’re living in right now. I also found it a bit of schadenfreude watching a room full of golf polo-dude-bro fans singing along, knowing a bunch of them voted against PBS, totally missing the irony of the song and how now, in light of living in the dumbest fucking timeline known to man, those lyrics hit so hard.

I’m amazed at a quiet ocean
I’m amazed at your warm devotion
I’m amazed at what the people sayin’
I’m amazed by a divided nation
Like the rhythm of the earth I get disrupted
I’m amazed at all that has been
I’m amazed at all that will be
I’m amazed at the tv stations
I’m amazed what they want me to believe
After all is said and done- where is the justice?
I’m amazed, the lack of evolution
I’m amazed, at the lack of faith
I’m amazed, at the love we rejecting
I’m amazed, what we accept in its place
Like the rhythm of the earth
And the rhythm of the ages
Like the rhythm- I get disrupted

– James Edward Olliges Jr., 2008

MMJ played the hits and a solid array of their discography over the almost two hour set. Check out the setlist here. I like to re-listen to songs in order to help me write, especially when I’m unable to have my phone out to take notes and I just love the harmonies that Carl Broemel and Jim James create when they play guitar simultaneously. Carl’s pedal steel adds depth and dimension to their music and to the live show. The band is from Kentucky and maybe that helps lend itself to the rock/blues/psych/old-country/indie sound that you might catch all in one song! “Knot Comes Lose” is a good example of the genre-mixing that happens within a MMJ song.

They launched into a bluesy encore with “Squid Ink” from their latest album, and still had time to get weird thanks to the carnival music sound coming from the keyboards. The show came to an end after the fan-fave, “Wordless Chorus”, and while I was sad that the show was over, I was relieved for the absence of “Dondante”. It’s a smooth, smooth song, but it’s overplayed. I’m talking to you Sirius Jam-On channel.

This episode will air on PBS this October. Check your local PBS listings or follow ACL TV on social media to find the specific air date of My Morning Jacket’s performance.

My cousin and I hopped into a pedicab, grabbed a burger at Casino El Camino, and caught the last part of the Deadeye show at Antone’s. I’d call that a well-rounded, sweaty night out in Austin.

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