Their name might not ring a bell, but to a certain strain of indie music fan, The Mountain Goats are royalty. Lead singer-songwriter John Darnielle has a generationally brilliant way with a pen and guitar \u2014 New York Times readers voted him to No. 70 on the publication\u2019s list of the 100 best living American songwriters earlier this year \u2014 and he\u2019s accumulated a passionate fanbase over the course of his three and a half decades and two dozens studio albums.<\/p>\n
But some may still consider their music an acquired taste. Darnielle is blessed with one of those great, expressive, polarizing voices that some people love and some people can\u2019t listen to. The group\u2019s songs and their titles are often full of obscure references or recount fever-dream-like narratives. And their frequently upbeat music regularly delves into the depressing as soon as you scratch the lyrical surface.<\/p>\n
The band \u2014 who, for a long time, only counted Darnielle as sole permanent member, but have expanded in recent years \u2014 released their latest album \u201cDays\u201d just 10 days ago and several songs from its tracklist were played at their Sunday night show at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale.<\/p>\n
For example, they opened the same way the album does, with \u201cSong for Layne Staley,\u201d an ode to the late Alice in Chains lead vocalist. The album overall was inspired by moments and memories of the 1990s, and it was palpable in the sonic landscape as well.<\/p>\n
Before \u201cCharlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds,\u201d Darnielle told the story behind the song (actor Charlie Sheen viewing a gory Japanese film, believing it was real, and calling the FBI to report it). \u201cGore movies were actually huge in Pennsylvania,\u201d he asserted to cheers, citing George A. Romero and Tom Savini as \u201cvery important\u201d to the genre of films.<\/p>\n
The song is a funny but anthemic tune from Charlie Sheen\u2019s perspective that got a surprisingly large percentage of the crowd singing along.<\/p>\n
They also played the album\u2019s wistful title track, as well as the deceptively cheery \u201cLast Day.\u201d \u201cEveryone thinks this song is very positive and I\u2019m like, \u2018cool, I\u2019m glad I wrote it in a major key.\u2019\u201d Darnielle joked before launching into the almost church-like tune.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s \u201cCandlebox,\u201d a fictional song about a band attempting to hit it big by opening for \u201990s alt rock band Candlebox. Thanks to this song, the band will, in fact, be opening for Candlebox on two dates of their fall tour.<\/p>\n
In the midst of the newer songs, they reached back into their massive discography. Darnielle played a couple of mid-set songs on his own, swinging like a pendulum between the fast and shouty \u201cChoked Out\u201d to the whispery fragility of \u201cWait For You\u201d and the twirly, genuinely uplifting \u201cStars Around Her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Pittsburgh crowd tends to get the obscure middle set,\u201d he joked to thunderous cheers.<\/p>\n
But even casual fans knew the last two songs of the set, the forceful \u201cThis Year\u201d (teachers about to welcome students back, take note of this one: the refrain is \u201cI am gonna make it through this year if it kills me\u201d) and viral divorce anthem \u201cNo Children,\u201d the danciest song I can think of about hating your spouse.<\/p>\n
Their four-song encore was kind of a sampler, featuring new album song \u201cShallow Grave\u201d as well as favorites from the early 2000s, \u201cSee America Right\u201d and cathartic fan favorite \u201cUp The Wolves\u201d to end the night.<\/p>\n
Whether live, on vinyl or on your streaming service of choice, The Mountain Goats are one of those truly singular acts worth checking out. Darnielle\u2019s lyrics are so quirky yet evocative, and he uses his voice to paint their vivid scenes. Plus, if you don\u2019t like one of their albums, they\u2019ve got plenty more to try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Their name might not ring a bell, but to a certain strain of indie music fan, The Mountain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-266812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}