there will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year

while i was hoping against hope that he'd indulge my love of "your belgian things," john darnielle did not disappoint in the slightest last night at the doug fir. the mountain goats continue to be one of my favorite bands and after last night, man...this guy might be my personal jesus.

i was too into the dancing around and singalongs and managing the impact of the audience's reactions to put down a setlist, but it included lots of favorites like "lion's teeth" and "dance music," but the tempo was slowed down and ELECTRIFIED. the funniest comment of the night (and those of you out there who have seen these kids play know that he tells random stories and whatnot) was "do you remember where you were when the mountain goats went electric?" awesome. yes, yes, y'all. and there are two encores to speak of...but my favorite moment came when i heard the opening of thin lizzy's "the boys are back in town." oh how beautiful! the ladies of Pony Up (a band that i now have to know by heart) came back out to provide backup vocals.

the rest of the set filled out with "tallahassee" and a couple of quiet numbers like "get lonely." you could hear a pin drop among the swaying of the bodies. this was such a great, packed crowd to be within...something of a homecoming for darnielle. he really seemed to enjoy himself up there. and i sincerely think he gets genuine joy knowing that that encore will contain the massive singalong (or shoutalong in this case) to 'no children.'

what joy *I* get from dancing and singing along to 'this year.' that song saved my mind last spring. it saved my soul, too. i really love dancing with a couple hundred other people that are instantly reminded of some low point in their lives when they decided they must push onward.

and there was a second encore that i don't want to tell anyone about...i want that few minutes to be for me, when he stepped into the crowd from behind his mic. i think i fell in love again with an awkward man named john darnielle.