"What is there left to say about My Morning Jacket as a live act? Lore and eyewitness accounts confirm that they've always been mighty, whether overshadowing Ben Kweller and Guided by Voices as a barnstorming opener in their early days or creating their own Mount Olympus with a career-defining set at Bonnaroo in 2008. Hell, last night's kickoff of their three-show Brooklyn Paramount run wasn't even the first time they had played 2005's Z front to back in NYC."
"As a (somehow) first-time eyewitness to their live show myself, I could run down the standard audiovisual reportage: Jim James toggling between wavy frontman choreography (opener "Wordless Chorus") and elephantine shredding ("Anytime"); utility wunderkind turned elder statesman Carl Broemel calmly slipping into sax mode for an extended album finale ("Dondante"); Patrick Hallahan's hair-raising snare hits; the backlighting of old-school LED grids that, through simple triangulation, mutated a smiley face into a constellation of the under-the-knife owl beak that graces Z ' s cover art."
"But if you're a fan or even just someone who's casually caught one of MMJ's concerts in the past, you've already seen the band's craftsmanship and volcanic energy on display. You don't need someone to extoll their in-the-flesh greatness, unparalleled as it may be and probably has been since their inception. This morning, head still blissfully buzzing from last night, I find myself thinking about what Z meant when it was released 20 years ago"
My Morning Jacket has long been a mighty live act, capable of overshadowing contemporaries and delivering career-defining festival sets. The band performed a front-to-back rendition of 2005's Z during a Brooklyn Paramount run. Live dynamics included Jim James's shifting between fluid frontman choreography and heavy guitar shredding, Carl Broemel's transition into saxophone for extended finales, Patrick Hallahan's explosive snare work, and LED backlighting that transformed visuals into the owl-beak motif from Z's cover. Z represented a major stylistic pivot toward spacey synthesizers, concise songs, and surrealistic or spiritual lyrics, contrasting earlier rootsy jamming. The album's live presentation in 2025 underscores its enduring impact.
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