My Morning Jacket Rocks The Village to Benefit KCRW

A few hundred KCRW members were lucky enough to see one of today's finest live-performing bands in a rare intimate performance at The Village studios in West L.A. Tuesday night.

In the middle of a tour that included a show before tens of thousands of fans at Bonnaroo, My Morning Jacket set one night aside to give back to KCRW. Toward the end of the set, frontman Jim James noted how lucky both the crowd and the band were to have a station like KCRW, which continues to break new bands at a time when most indie and alternative radio stations have vanished from the airwaves.

And the 250 people in the crowd, some of whom won tickets from the station and others who purchased $125 tickets (all proceeds benefitting KCRW, the Santa Monica-based NPR-affiliated public radio station) knew they were lucky to be there too. My Morning Jacket performed 15 songs in a nearly two-hour set on the soundstage at the famed Village Recorder studios, site of historic recording sessions including The Rolling Stones' "Angie" and Sly and the Family Stone's "There's a Riot Goin' On." The sound was fantastic, and MMJ delivered its dynamic sound without a hitch in a stripped-down stage setup, devoid of the mesmerizing backdrop and halo of lights present at other shows on the band's current tour.

The renovated performance space was adorned with chandeliers that were used in "A Miracle on 34th Street" a fact that James pointed out more than once, though it was difficult to make out his mumbling from the crowd, many of whom were buzzing on complimentary beer, wine and bourbon.

The Village (also known as Village Studios or Village Recorder) itself was a veritable museum: the walls lined with gold and platinum records from the likes of Bob Dylan, Supertramp and Pink Floyd. Originally built as a Masonic temple in the 1920s, it was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Los Angeles center for Transcendental Meditation in the '60's. It's still an active recording studio for musicians as well as movie and television soundtracks.

My Morning Jacket's set at The Village was recorded and will be broadcast on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic on July 15th.

My Morning Jacket performs tonight at Pantages Theater in Hollywood. The show is sold out. MMJ has a history of partnering with charities and donating $1 per ticket to a local charity. The Pantages show benefits My Friend's Place.

SETLIST:
My Morning Jacket at The Village Studios, West L.A., June 21, 2011

Victory Dance
Circuital
The Day is Coming
Wonderful (The Way I Feel)
Outta My System
Holdin’ on to Black Metal
First Light
You Wanna Freak Out
Slow Slow Tune
Movin' Away
Wordless Chorus
Smokin" From Shootin"
Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt.2
One Big Holiday
I Will Sing