Final Fantasy & Mountain Goats Live: Ballad of Mario

In October, Owen Pallet posted to his twitter page: "Can't contain it. I just completed 10 days on the best album I've ever had the pleasure of working on."

Speculation was that it was, gasp oh gasp, the new Arcade Fire record that is being secretly passed into master tape form like something Dan Brown will write about. Pallet (of Final Fantasy) is the virtuoso string arranger on AF's records (he frequently performs their song "No Cars Go" live). Last night at the Granada, he abandoned any straps velcroing him to the status of "contributor" to other bands. His fiddle playing was perfect and robust, and his voice hit the ceiling rafters. I don't think I've ever seen a opening band get so much applause. It was just good.


The Mountain Goats are interesting. Each song was draped in Bible verse, and a good ol' fashioned story by lead singer John Darnielle: from the occasional Marioland ballad to songs about three-way love triangles. Their music had a bright and positive spin that was less Christian rock annoyance and more just sing-and-play. If you can't stand the whole singing about God through modern progressive metaphors, a theme Sufjan Stevens enjoys, you may want to just eat a bunch of hot dogs outside. But there's was a surprising lack of "indie" to the Mountain Goats and Final Fantasy. It was more Decemberists-like in pop form, than deeply artful soul searching. The most fun was a ballad dedicated to the "other" Italian Stallion: Mario from nintendo fame. Darnielle sang about Mario's sad red hat, and losing his beloved Peach princess. The rest of the show was just plain wholesome.

Final Fantasy has a new album called Heartland, arriving early next year. The Mountain Goats are touring their new album The Life of the World to Come.