Midway through My Morning Jacket’s Friday night Red Rocks set Jim James stopped to marvel at the experience and reminisce about the importance of the famed Morrison, Colorado venue. “Somehow we’re all here again…back in the birth canal, under the stars” James exclaimed, reviving his unique “birth canal” description of Red Rocks that he coined during a performance here a few years back. This was the Kentucky band’s twelfth Red Rocks appearance, and the third night of a four night Colorado run that included two nights at Summit County’s Dillon Amphitheatre earlier in the week and a second Red Rocks show the following night.
Friday night’s set had an overall mellow feel to it, with opener “I Will Sing You Songs” from 2003’s It Still Moves setting the tone for the night. The quintet worked their way through material from throughout the band’s history, with at least one song from ten different albums. The highlight of the night came late in the set with a seamless transition from “Gideon” into a nearly twenty-five minute “Dondante.” Both of these songs, fan favorites from the album Z, are setlist staples, and “Dondante” is frequently extended in the live setting. About five minutes into the jam, the band dropped into an unexpected funky gallop, with James taking exploratory guitar solos and adding vocal chants. The jam eventually dissolved back into the song’s structure, picked up pace for a few minutes, then finally closed out with an extended saxophone solo by Carl Broemel. This version of “Dondante” will go down as one of the all-time top live takes on the song.
As big as this combo was, the show was far from over. “Golden” with James on acoustic guitar, an eight minute “Circuital”, “Anytime”, a stretched out “Wasted” closed out the set.
The band returned for a four song, nearly thirty minute encore that kicked off with The Tennessee Fire classic “I Think I’m Going To Hell”, followed by Circuital live staple “Victory Dance”, and “Love Love Love” from the band’s latest self-titled studio album. An extended “Dancefloors” brought another memorable night of My Morning Jacket at the birth canal to a close.
“It’s wild. In a lot of ways, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you guys and this place. We had taken a hiatus for a while as a band, the future wasn’t really certain. I don’t know if you know this, but this place is obviously such an amazing place to play, you have to book it way far in advance to play here. We were going through this period where we weren’t sure what was going to happen, but we had these shows booked in 2019 to play here. Our friend Eric really convinced us to play. And then we came here and played, and we remembered what it felt like to be a band, and we remembered how awesome music is, and how awesome it is to play for fine people like y’all. It really just brought us back to life playing here again. So this is very very sacred space for us.”
– Jim James, August 26, 2022
My Morning Jacket, Aug 26, 2022, Red Rocks Amphitheatare, Morrison, CO Setlist
I Will Sing You Songs, In Its Infancy (The Waterfall), Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 1, Off The Record, Cobra, Where To Begin, Rollin Back, Least Expected, Evil Urges, One Big Holiday, I Will Be There When You Die, If All Else Fails, Never In The Real World, Gideon > Dondonte, Golden, Circuital, Anytime, Wasted
I Think I’m Going To Hell, Victory Dance, Love Love Love, Dancefloors
The Breakdown
- It Still Moves: 5
- Z: 4
- My Morning Jacket: 3
- The Tennessee Fire: 3
- Circuital: 2
- Evil Urges: 2
- The Waterfall: 1
- The Waterfall II: 1
- Chocolate and Ice EP: 1
- Elizabethtown Soundtrack: 1
Stream My Morning Jacket, August 26, 2022 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO
Download the audio recording of this show at archive.org.
Visit the official My Morning Jacket site for upcoming tour dates and news.
All photos by Mitch Kline.