My Morning Jacket at The Armory

The Louisville, KY band's sound and lights filled the room, even if the crowd did not.

Sunday night's show at the Armory was at least my 5th time seeing the band, though I have seen Jim James solo twice (at the State Theatre in 2016 and First Ave in 2019).

MMJ played Rock The Garden in 2011, and were part of a stellar lineup on the AmericanaramA tour at Midway Stadium in 2013 that also featured Wilco and Bob Dylan. All six members of Trampled by Turtles joined MMJ for "Wonderful, The Way I Feel" that day. About halfway through Sunday's set, Dave Simonett of Trampled by Turtles was welcomed to the stage to sing a verse of that same song, bringing daughter Lucy to the stage for a memorable moment.

In 2016, Brianna and I saw them at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, just about a week after Prince passed away. In tribute to the artist, MMJ played a lovely "Purple Rain". It was really special to again hear the band play "Purple Rain" Sunday, this time on the eve of the 6th anniversary of Prince’s passing. On this occasion opening act Grace Cummings joined in to contribute vocals.

MMJ's most recent stop in the Twin Cities was to St. Paul's Palace Theater in 2023. At a capacity of 2600, Jacket had no problem filling it. This time around, on Easter Sunday, the 8000 capacity Armory was perhaps half full. I speculated that maybe the view from the stage of all that empty space was disheartening for the band, affecting the energy of the band and resulting in what I thought was a bit of a lackluster show. All that space meant plenty of room to move around though, and got to hear some of my favorite MMJ songs: “Compound Fracture”, the new and pretty “Time Waited”, which has thus far in 2025 has been my number one source of stuck tune syndrome, the driving “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Part 2” featuring Jim James aka Yim Yames on omnichord, and perhaps their best known banger, the anthemic “One Big Holiday”. The sound was near perfect as usual at The Armory, even close to the front. The lights were radiant and Jim James, as always, had “the most angelic voice, he makes Enya sound like a Russian couple arguing at the bowling alley” as Stan Smith once said on American Dad. He alternated between acoustic, electric, and Flying V guitars and delighted the crowd with his shamanistic stage antics.

Although it may not have been my favorite performance overall, I still had a blast and the band procured a generous set of nearly two and a half hours. I’ll definitely see them again and hope to catch some of my other favorite tunes of theirs and/or from Jim James’ excellent solo albums.