The Mountain Goats – The Arches, Glasgow 10/10/13

I think that the more wordy or obviously literate or literary an artist is, the more obsessive the fan base becomes. Take, as examples, Okkervil River, Amanda Palmer, Elliott Smith, The Hold Steady…all have an obvious storytelling aspect to their music, and having been to shows by three out of the four acts I’ve witnessed mass singalongs, passionate dancing and a real connection between artist and audience. After this show, I can add The Mountain Goats to the acts with a fanatical following.

This was my first experience of the North Carolina-via-California band (just John Darnielle and bassist Peter Hughes for this stripped down and intimate sit-down show at Glasgow’s Arches) and I felt like something of an outsider surrounded by a crowd who knew every word and whooped with delight as Darnielle played the opening chords of each song. But by the end I felt welcomed into the congregation; Darnielle is a funny, warm and open guy, clearly aware of how passionate his audience can get and very appreciative of this fact, and although it’s only in 2013 (I know, 14 albums and 20-odd years late) that I’ve actually gotten round to listening to the likes of Tallahassee, All Hail West Texas and The Sunset Tree I can appreciate just how easy it could be to get obsessed by this band.

Beginning with ‘Pure Gold’ from the Ghana compilation, Darnielle and Hughes batter through acoustic renditions from the band’s back catalogue (although Transcendental Youth was released last year, it’s largely ignored) following it with the hilarious ‘Linda Blair Was Born Innocent’ and the touching rise-and-decline of ‘The Fall of the Star High School Running Back’ (sample lyric: “selling acid was a bad idea / And selling it to a cop was a worse one”). The best moments came when Darnielle took up position at the piano and ran through a handful of songs with a biblical or visceral theme: ‘In Memory of Satan’ is sweet and funny, ‘Genesis 30:3’ was rather beautiful and his comic intro for ‘Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace’ balanced the following tale of murder really quite nicely, with Darnielle battering the front of the piano for percussion.

The crowd are truly roused from their seats (although, kudos to the woman who danced – and I mean really danced, pirouettes and everything – through the entire show) by set closer and fan favourite singalong ‘No Children’ and again during encore song ‘Up The Wolves’ from The Sunset Tree. Finally, when finishing on ‘California Song’, Darnielle steps out into his congregation, walking down the aisle between seats, singing without a microphone and taking time to thank everyone for coming.

It can be no coincidence that the lyrics for that final song are: “I got joy joy joy in my soul tonight”; Darnielle seems almost as delighted to be here as the crowd are to see him. I might never reach the levels of fanaticism witnessed tonight, but leave appreciating more than ever the importance of the link between audience and artist.