“We will try to represent the intimate sound of ‘At Dawn’ and ‘Tennessee Fire’ to some extent, but even back in the day, there was always a difference between our studio versions and our live versions.”- Jim James
(NJ.com interview, August 2010)
In June 2010 My Morning Jacket announced that they would be playing five full-length shows at New York City’s Terminal 5 come fall, performing one of their full-length albums in its entirety each night.
Kicking off on Monday, October 18, the band begun the run with their 1999 debut record The Tennessee Fire and concluded with 2008’s Evil Urges on Saturday.
Terminal 5 - The Tennessee Fire
Terminal 5 - At Dawn
Terminal 5 - It Still Moves
The idea of a multiple event
In July 2010 Tom Blankenship was interviewed about the upcoming shows by Relix Magazine. In the interview Blankenship reveals that the band initially was sort of opposed to doing a multiple night event, when it was suggested that we do one album for each night, it became interesting.
"We wanted to hit NYC on this run of touring, but we weren't quite sure what venue to play. But then we got the offer to play five nights at Terminal 5. Until our manager came up with the idea to dedicate each night to a different album, we weren't sold on it. That sounded like a great way to make each night unique and special in its own way instead of the Groundhog Day approach of just playing the same venue for five nights in a row. We're all really looking forward to it. We love playing in NYC."
"It was sort of a mixed bag because it really would be great to be in New York for that long and play in a venue we haven’t been in before. And then, when it was suggested that we do one album for each night, it became interesting because that was something we had never really done before."- Tom Blankenship
(Relix Magazine interview, July 2010)
In the interview Blankenship also points out that a lot of the material had never been done start to finish in the way that the band planned to perform it, especially The Tennessee Fire and At Dawn tracks.
Playing some of the older songs
In an New York Post interview published on October 10th 2010 Jim James talked about how the band never had played a venue more than two nights in a row, so when they were offered five, they knew what they were going to do. James also commented on playing some of the older songs.
"We let our fans know so they could pick what show they would enjoy more, that was easy. Trying to figure out how the hell to play some of the songs I haven’t thought about in ages is not."
