Seated inside the majestic Academy of Music, with three rows of gilded balconies, and a giant, sparkling chandelier, it’s easy to forget you’re at a rock concert.
“They actually filmed the ballroom scenes of a classic ocean disaster movie here,” asserts My Morning Jacket’s Yim Yames (real name: Jim James) Monday night, half-joking as he surveys the crowd. “We dedicate this next number to the remake of the Poseidon!”
He laughs and strums his guitar as band mate M. Ward exhales into the microphone. The song is “To save me”, one of Ward’s own, and he’s joined by Yames—as well as Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis—to recreate it live on stage.
Keyboards twinkle, percussion clangs, guitars quaver, and Ward’s husky tubes pump out an effortless tune. It’s an evening of recreation and energy, from modern music’s most promising new super group, the Monsters of Folk.
Conceived half a decade ago when the quartet used to tour together, the Monsters are more than an amalgam of ridiculously talented people—they’re a roaring, thriving, rock and folk force, whose impressive 2 hour-and-15-minute set contains both original compositions (the band’s self-titled debut dropped this past October) and classic faves from the M. Ward, Bright Eyes and My Morning Jacket catalogues.
