Monsters of Folk - In Review

A sold-out Stubb’s audience gathered Friday to hear the gospel of the Monsters of Folk in the band’s last scheduled US stop on this tour. In concert with the religious themes running throughout their debut album, the men themselves seem to take the form of evangelists on stage, preaching their modern-day folklore and bewilderment of the universe. Jim James, M. Ward, Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis and Austin’s own Will Johnson dominated the stage for almost 3 hours, playing almost every song from their album plus a healthy mix of songs from the guys’ separate bands.

Gypsy Punk Party

Gogol Bordello, the fantastic gypsy outfit headed by Eugene Hutz, is hitting up Stubb's on Sunday. If you're a fan of Flogging Molly, punk music, or music from the Ukraine, you will most likely enjoy this band. Their live show is particularly rowdy; everyone has tons of energy, and as you can see in the picture above, crowd surfing on a drum by the band members is common. Check out video below of the band at Coachella if you're curious, and hit up the show if you like what you see - doors are at 6pm and Apostle of Hustle opens.

Monsters of Folk devour Austin!

The fabulous indie folk supergroup Monsters of Folk, composed of Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes, Jim James from My Morning Jacket, and M. Ward, is going to perform at Stubb's on Friday, November 13th - lucky for us, eh? Eh??

In all seriousness, this show promises to be excellent. An Evening With Monsters of Folk is described on the group's website as

Conor Oberst, Jim James, M Ward and Mike Mogis will be a 2 1/2 hour musical event showcasing brand new songs from the forthcoming album as well as songs fans have come to enjoy from their respective Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket and M Ward catalogues.

Too cool for words, kids. Personally, Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes win my heart every time, but I'm also a longtime fan of My Morning Jacket and am slowly becoming addicted to M. Ward's latest release, Hold Time as well as some of his back catalog. These four men are some of the best wordsmiths of our generation. They sing political songs, they sing songs about finding your way in the world, they sing songs about what it means to be human, what it means to be alive. If you've ever found yourself soul-searching, if you've found yourself confused as to what the modern world expects from you, you'll find something on the group's self-titled album that will speak to you, I guarantee. I cannot WAIT for this show! Buy tickets here.

Expect a review of that, plus two back-to-back Peter Bjorn and John shows I'm going to the weekend of November 13th through 15th. It's going to be epic.