Shortly before its New Years Eve performance at San Franciscos Fillmore Auditorium, My Morning Jacket posted the following message on its homepage:
_ …It is the year 2006, almost 2007, and its new years eve…. a huge party of revelers will come to the fillmore, expecting a my morning jacket concert, but instead they’ll be faced with the most difficult and bizarre task of their lives: crossing thru a barren, snow-covered wilderness with no food or shelter, and only the clothes on their backs. those who make it thru the stark wasteland will come out on the other side to experience the heavenly magic of rock and roll, breaking into the new year with a belly full of food and drink, a heart full of courage, and ears bleeding with the raw, moist intensity and power of sticky rock and roll. please come dressed accordingly to make the trip: as a ghost, a gold prospector, a riverboat gambler, laura ingalls, a gypsy, a hobo, a bloodthirsty zombie, a box of cookies, a robot, a buffalo, a prairie daddy or mamma, a bear or whatever you may think you need to help you make it thru the wilderness its ‘oregon trail’ meets ‘little house on the prairie’ meets the donner party of 2007 in hell!!! on new years eve!!! will anyone make it out alive???? happy (almost) new years!!!! -mmj._
And, indeed, My Morning Jackets three-night run at the Fillmore blurred the line between club-size arena-rock and full on performance art. Nodding to its new live album, Okonokos, which was recorded at the Fillmore last year, My Morning Jacket opened its December 29 performance with an acoustic version of Into the Woods (the group also dressed its stage as a forest the night it recorded Okonokos). On December 30, the band entered in procession, led by someone in a bear costume, carrying a battery powered candlestick which served as an onstage prop the previous night. The group offered two sets on New Years Eve, opening its performance with the _ It Still Moves_ single, One Big Holiday. At midnight, the group brought their bear character back on stage, this time introduced as the mayor of San Francisco to led their New Years countdown. After midnight, My Morning Jacket busted into Kool and the Gangs Celebration and Lionel Richies All Night Long with the aid of the Deerland Horns. The groups string of covers continued throughout its second set, including Princes Never Take the Place of Your Man and AC/DCs Highway to Hell. Bassist Two-Tone Tommy took a rare stab at lead vocals on the latter number, while his guitar technician played bass dressed as Pocahontas. My Morning Jacket will appear at San Diego, CAs House of Blues tonight.