Thank you Joseph S. for this review from the New Orleans Jazz Festival!
After waiting over a year and a half it was great to see the boys come out and jam the Jazz Fest.
Luckily after the rain on Friday the weather was about perfect for the MMJ show. They came on shortly after five thirty and the first thing I noticed even before the music is that Yim Yames was wearing holsters with two fake guns in them. Kind of a western cowboy look. I was not close enough to verify but speculate they were duck hunt guns (EDIT - this is accurate). Periodically he would point the at the crowd. Pretty Funny.
They started with a very brief musical interlude, that really never had a groove, but was just a warm, then the opener "One Big Holiday" and we were off and running. The sound was good and the boys were tight.
Set list remained a pretty standard show with the boys playing tight and well and the crowd was pretty into it. "Thank You Too" seemed a bit slow for fitting with the rest of the show, but still a solid version if you are
a fan of the song.
The setlist from the forum, see below indicated that "Evil Urges" was played before "Highly Suspicious" and with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. I did not write anything down, but was fairly certain that the first song with the PHB was "Highly Suspicious," which was funky. This represented my favorite run of songs, it was different, awesome, and very New Orleans with "Mother in Law," "Carnival Time," and "Move On Up." There was a group of locals that pretty well just stood and enjoyed the show the whole time, but when they played "Mother In Law" the locals went nuts.
After "Move On Up" I really wanted one more MMJ song, but I think they used up all their time. I saw several bands during the fest and the only one I saw do an encore was the Allman Brothers. The crowd stuck around for a good long time trying to get them back on, but it did not happen.
There was a good crowd for Jacket, but nice and spaced out with most people heading to Simon & Garfunkle. Good for the Jacket fans.
Another thing that was different for me was to see them with the big projection screens. I have seen six shows, including two at Bonnaroo, but never were at the main stage or with projections screens. Caught myself watching them a bunch.
Well another good show. Not the best I have seen, but solid for the time they were allowed. With the short format it was tough not seeing the long jams I love like "Dondante," "Run Thru," "Steam Engine," "Phone Went West", etc.
Looking forward to Columbus
