My Morning Jacket’s St. Paul stop came at a time of rebirth for the Louisville-based band. After going on hiatus in 2018 following years of extensive touring and recording, the band didn’t play together on stage for four years. Tuesday night’s performance not only marked the band’s return to a Minnesota stage, but also came in support of 2021’s self-titled album and several reissues. On this latest release, My Morning Jacket shares a free-flowing album of jam-heavy tracks that feel like the next stage of a band constantly growing and evolving in the rock genre since their 1999 debut. 

How did this new phase take shape on Tuesday night? Led by Jim James’ gritty, searing vocals and propelled by the thunderous riffs of lead guitarist Carl Broemel, My Morning Jacket created an unceasing crush of sound. It shook the Palace from the moment the band stepped foot on the stage all the way to the last notes of the encore. 

Before My Morning Jacket took the stage, the Tulsa-based Wilderado serenaded the slowly filling theater with bright indie-folk tracks designed to be sung around a campfire. Frontman Max Rainier’s voice featured a strong Southern influence, causing his high notes to crackle slightly as he hit them. At the end of their 40-minute set, the band split up into pairs to perform a moving, stripped-down performance of their hit “Rubble to Rubble,” accompanied only by Rainier’s guitar. Wilderado offered a fairly toned-down performance, setting up the evening with concise, succinct rock — unlike the band that would follow. 

Rainier then set high expectations for the audience waiting to see My Morning Jacket: “Get ready to see one of the greatest live bands.” It may have seemed like hyperbole, but throughout their nearly two-and-a-half-hour set, the indie rock quintet unleashed ferocious, expansive jamming and stunning visuals. 

Kicking off the show with “Regularly Scheduled Programming,” the show’s setlist drew from songs across their extensive nine-album catalog. As they played, the band took familiar MMJ tracks and reshaped them. With the addition of simple touches such as headier lead guitar, clashier drums, or a thicker bassline, the band broke their own songs out of their recorded roots rock mold to become fuzzed-out psychedelic rock tracks. These minor adjustments created a novel sonic experience, offering the audience a glimpse of the band that could only be enjoyed by catching them at a live performance. 

Throughout, James bounced back and forth between lead singer and lead guitarist. When he wasn’t playing, he moved slowly and deliberately around the stage, swiping and chopping his arms to punctuate the flow of the music with karate-style movements. He sang with his entire body, arms outstretched toward the ceiling or the audience. His face scrunched from the effort of bellowing into the microphone, and his wild, curly hair flew every which way. When he was leading on guitar, he strummed furiously and theatrically, swinging his arm back above his head on downbeats before launching into technical, demanding guitar work.

The band often broke up their songs for long periods of jamming together. In fact, nearly every song was tinkered with, creating space for primarily James and Broemel to trade off lead on the riffing. While the jam sessions were clear representations of both guitarists’ skills as they played high on the fretboard, they may have also created uncertainty for some listeners. The jamming often took confusing or unprecedented turns, shifting tone or rhythm completely as if to cue the start of the next song, only for the band to revert back to a verse of the original song quickly. At one point, the band even switched out instruments mid-jam session to continue playing around on the previous song. For some, this shifting style, combined with the frequency of the riffing, may have made following the show more difficult. Perhaps for more dedicated fans, these jams were a welcome addition to the evening. 

Regardless of their feelings on the band’s jamming, the nearly sold-out crowd never seemed to lose steam throughout the marathon show. Fans up into the rafters of the Palace balcony stood for most of the show, dancing as they pumped their fists and sang along. At the center of the general admission barricade, several superfans headbanged with a ferocity that may warrant a doctor’s visit. Absence had clearly made the fans’ hearts grow fonder, and the crowd seemed thrilled to see their favorite band back on stage. 

To round out their performance, My Morning Jacket incorporated stunning visuals to augment their stage presence. While they were flanked by their signature giant stuffed bears on either side of the stage, the band’s set design also included a massive shining LED light panel at the back of the stage. Hypnotic shapes were projected onto the stage, further adding the ethereal setting. At times, the pulsing of the light wall became somewhat visually overwhelming, but the overall effect of the visuals created an otherworldly ambiance for the band. 

The power of the meshing of sound and visual became most apparent during “Wordless Chorus.” Standing on the edge of the stage, James pushed his voice soaring over the crowd as he sang “Tell me spirit, what has not been done? / I’ll rush out and do it, or are we doing it now?” and raised his arm above his head. With the downbeat of the pre-chorus vocalizations, James dropped his arm just as a beam of light hit a disco ball to shower the audience in speckles of light. While it was an easy addition to the visuals of the show, James’ musical timing and the brooding accompaniment of the band created a breathtaking effect.

The night closed out with a raucous three-song encore that neither audience members nor the band themselves seemed to want to end. As the crowd cheered wildly as the band left the stage, it was clear that Rainier had been right all along. 

Wilderado

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My Morning Jacket

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Setlist

Regularly Scheduled Programming

Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1

Spring (Among the Living)

Dancefloors

In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)

Never in the Real World 

Off the Record

Holdin On to Black Metal

Wordless Chorus 

Magic Bullet

Love Love Love

Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2

I Will Be There When You Die 

Slow Slow Tune 

Lucky to Be Alive

Circuital 

One Big Holiday 

Encore

Feel You

Wasted

Mahgeetah