The Mountain Goats at White Eagle Hall
Photo by Greg Cristman

John Darnielle doing 'Selected Shorts' at Symphony Space; Mountain Goats touring

The Mountain Goats are touring this summer and fall, and they’ve got a break in their tour dates during which time frontman John Darnielle will come to NYC’s Symphony Space to “curate a special evening of favorite stories” for Symphony Space’s ‘Selected Shorts’ series. If you’re unfamiliar, ‘Selected Shorts’ is “a weekly public radio show broadcast on over 150 stations to about 300,000 listeners.” It “[features] stories around a lively theme, the favorite works of a guest author, or a special collaboration.” Here’s more:

There is a theme to each Selected Shorts episode and performance. Several stories are presented around each theme. The stories are always fiction, sometimes classic, sometimes new, always performed by great actors from stage, screen and television who bring these short stories to life. Evenings are often co-hosted by writers, literary producers, and other interesting characters.

John Darnielle’s edition, which happens on October 24 at 7:30 in Symphony Space’s Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, “[explores] the connective tissues between songwriting and storytelling.” It hasn’t been announced if he’ll have any guests or not. Tickets are on sale.

John Darnielle went on a book tour earlier this year for his latest book, 2017’s Universal Harvester. The Mountain Goats’ latest album also came out in 2017, Goths.

Earlier this year, a Mountain Goats tribute album came out in conjunction with a Mountain Goats podcast, featuring covers by Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace, The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn, Andrew Bird, Amanda Palmer, Julian Koster (Neutral Milk Hotel, The Music Tapes), and more. Laura Jane Grace also covered a different Mountain Goats song at Against Me!’s Brooklyn show earlier this year. Watch below:

Also watch a solo performance by John Danrielle:

The Mountain Goats — 2018 Tour Dates
AUG 30 Athens, GA Georgia Theatre
AUG 31 Tallahassee, FL The Wilbury
SEP 01 Tampa, FL The Orpheum
SEP 02 St. Augustine, FL Sing Out Loud Festival
SEP 04 Oxford, MS The Lyric Oxford
SEP 05 Tulsa, OK Cain’s Ballroom
SEP 06 Dallas, TX Canton Hall
SEP 07 San Antonio, TX Paper Tiger
SEP 08 Austin, TX ACL Live at the Moody Theater
SEP 10 Tucson, AZ 191 Toole
SEP 11 Phoenix, AZ Crescent Ballroom
SEP 12 Santa Fe, NM Meow Wolf
SEP 13 Boulder, CO Boulder Theater
SEP 14 Fort Collins, CO Washington’s
NOV 30 Saxapahaw, NC The Haw River Ballroom
DEC 01 Saxapahaw, NC The Haw River Ballroom