My Morning Jacket
Greek Theatre, Berkeley
August 22, 2025
Photos by Paul Piazza
My Morning Jacket concluded their summer tour run in support of their excellent new album Is at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley recently. This was the first new album in four years and 10th studio album for the storied band from Louisville, Kentucky. The group were also celebrating the 20th anniversary of their landmark record Z on this tour.
There is a Bay Area connection for the band as well: they recorded their excellent pair of Waterfall albums in nearby Stinson and have a long-standing love affair with the area. Just the year before, the band had taken on a four-night residency in San Francisco’s Fillmore that their fans permanently relished. They played zero repeats in the lengthy run in between dropping in at Bottle Rock in Napa for a daytime set.
On this tour finale, the band covered a wide breadth of their career’s music, which was quite a feat considering they formed in 1998. There were ten albums represented, along with a song from the 2002
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Chocolate And Ice
EP and two choice covers. One of the covers was the band’s debut of the John Lennon song “Love” and the other was a Jim James solo song titled “Here in Spirit.” There were also bits of The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” and a gorgeous cover of Bay Area legend’s Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank you (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” near the end. This extra nice touch was performed in a sonically pleasing, acoustic arrangement.
The band, which features James on vocals and guitar, also features the incredible talents of Tom Blankenship on bass, Patrick Hallanhan on drums, Carl Broemel on guitars and Bo Koster on keys. Together they are a formidable group that can swing efficiently between dreamy art rock, alt-country and full-on Southern psychedelic rock jams. They hit the crowd plenty hard with the latter on multiple occasions and also delved into other seductively beautiful sounds elsewhere on this cool night in Berkeley.
My Morning Jacket have long carried a reputation as a show-stopping band. In 2008 the band entered the storied performance realm, when they played a set at Bonnaroo that began at midnight, continued on for four hours in a torrential rainstorm, and featured guest appearances by Zack Galifianakis on Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home,” and Metallica’s Kirk Hammett on “One Big Holiday.” The following year, this event was immortalized on an episode of the animated show American Dad entitled “My Morning Straitjacket.”
Opening the show at The Greek Theatre were Melt, a New York band, who have been together about eight years. The band features vocalist Veronica Stewart-Frommer, guitarist Marlo Shankweiler, and bassist Lucas Saur. They had a big hit early in their career with the indie rock tune “Sour Candy.” Stewart-Frommer came out with My Morning Jacket and joined James on a gorgeous duet for “Here is Spirit” and sang back-up on the band’s fantastic and quirky “Holdin’ On To Black Metal.”
