This week, featured columnist Brian Bavosa shares an inside view of the super-intimate taping of My Morning Jacket’s VH1 Storytellers…
On Thursday, February 24th, I was lucky enough to have won a contest that gained me a pair of tickets for the first taping of VH1’s 2011 Storytellers season. The band was none other than My Morning Jacket. The entry required more than just basic info, but actual written responses and potential questions from the fans, which made the entire experience of being one of 30 winners out of thousands and thousands – as the staff told me while waiting on line – extremely memorable. But what I will never forget about this night is the magical and zany world of Jim James (a.k.a. Yim Yames), his space-cadet, yet loveable personality and storytelling, and especially hearing many of band’s biggest songs in a truly intimate, 110 person setting.

[Photo via Blog.VH1.com]
Taking place at the NEP/Metropolis Studios on 106th Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan, it was a unique setting for this surreal event. Yes, it was somewhat nerve-racking having to wait on line for hours before entry, but after I settled into my front row seats, directly in front of guitarist Carl Broemel, I realized how I was about to see a band that has easily sold out Radio City and played MSG on New Year’s Eve in a space that seemed fit for a small party. After numerous instructions and camera finagling by VH1, the band entered to thunderous applause around 8PM and played non-stop through the taping for exactly the next two hours. The setlist was vintage MMJ, and even included some nods to their upcoming release, Circuital.
The sense of nervousness amongst band and crowd was further witnessed when James first started telling a story about how he was struck by divine inspiration over a carton of eggs in the early morning and how the sunlight reflected off of them. He seemed to get lost in his childlike, philosophical brain before finally deciding to step away from the mic and play the next track. There were comical moments, especially when James told of the band’s early years and the Brown/Cream colored van that they toured in, and how his Grandmother told him that bars are “dark and lonely places,” a line he eventually used in the song Golden.
READ ON for more from Brian on MMJ Storytellers…