Forget for a minute that John Darnielle is one of those story-telling types and that the bulk of his back catalog as The Mountain Goats is roundly not-biographical, and instead imagine that each song is written specifically about touring with pals like Peter Hughes and Jon Wurster. Like, take “The Recognition Scene” from Sweden and then imagine Darnielle, Hughes, and Wurster breaking into a candy store together, stealing “every bit of candy they had inside,” and then “gobbling it all up greedily.” Cute, right? Or “Psalms 40:2” from The Life of the World to Come (TMT Review), where the gang heads down toward Kansas and Darnielle says he “Feel[s] bad about the things we do along the way,” but actually, “not really that bad.” I just imagine Peter Hughes being all like, “Dude, John, you smell like some weird vegan soup mixed with B.O.” and Darnielle being all like, “Oh, sorry man, that’s probably because of all that weird vegan soup I ate back in Omaha. Also I haven’t showered in like three days. I feel bad about it, but actually never mind. No regrets. Yolo.”
With all of that held in your mind, I’d like to ask you to look below at the upcoming Mountain Goats tour dates. Sure the first few are Darnielle solo dates, but come June, Darnielle and Hughes will take to the road as a duo. Darnielle says this is the first time since 2007 that the band has played duo dates on the West Coast, which is cool, but doesn’t really affect me since I live in Indiana. They’re calling the tour The Twin Human Highway Fiends Tour, referencing “Twin Human Highway Flares” off of Full Force Galesburg (imagine Darnielle singing this adorable doozy to Hughes after a long day of driving: “When we shut the motel room door behind us/ we knew we’d hit the motherlode.”) The full band will regroup in July in North Carolina for Merge’s 25th anniversary. This news post is now over.
Dates:
04.16.14 - Boston, MA - Somerville Theatre *
04.17.14 - Hudson, NY - Club Helsinki *
04.19.14 - Chicago, IL - Old Town School of Folk Music *
04.20.14 - Chicago, IL - Old Town School of Folk Music *
04.21.14 - Iowa City, IA - First United Methodist Church *
06.05.14 - Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre ^
06.07.14 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court ^
06.08.14 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory ^
06.10.14 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox ^
06.11.14 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom ^
06.13.14 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill ^
06.14.14 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill ^
06.17.14 - Los Angeles, CA - Mayan Theater ^
06.18.14 - Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom ^
06.20.14 - Denton, TX - Dan’s Silverleaf ^
06.21.14 - Houston, TX - Fitzgerald’s ^
06.22.14 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk ^
06.27.14 - Saxapahaw, NC - Haw River Ballroom *
07.25.14 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle (Merge 25) #
* John Darnielle solo
^ John Darnielle and Peter Hughes duo
# full band
• The Mountain Goats: http://www.mountain-goats.com
• Merge: http://www.mergerecords.com
[Photo: DL Anderson]
More about: The Mountain Goats
