CONCERT: The Uncategorizable Father John Misty

Great artist, great show, great sound.

This week was a big music week. Amy and I went to see Father John Misty at the Fillmore. We had dinner at Green Dot beforehand and talked to some young ladies who were also going to the show and tried to come up with how you would categorize his music.

There’s so much going on in his stuff that it’s tough. There’s definitely a folk, singer-songwriter component, but also elements of baroque pop, 40s-50s lush orchestration, jazz, and ornate multi-track vocals.

Quite a potpourri of styles.

If you don’t know, he was the drummer for Fleet Foxes before striking out on his own and coming up with the Father moniker. He’s got a really cool hipster vibe in the best sense of the term. The show was great. He had a really tight seven-piece band and the mix was just fantastic — an awesome wall of sound that’s as good as anything I’ve heard in years. The lighting was also cool and perfectly cued.

A big part of his appeal is his lyrics. After boning up for the show, I’d put his lyrics in three broad categories. First there’s pretty straight-forward love songs and bitter anti-love songs. Second there’s some broad philosophical and religious stuff that sometimes veers into the engaging but incomprehensible. Lastly, there’s seemingly autobiographical songs about the real him (Josh Tillman) that document a drug-fueled lifestyle on the edges of the underbelly of Los Angeles. I have no idea what is true, but it’s sometimes funny and always fascinating.

Here’s the setlist: