On June 29 and 30, The Capitol Groove staged its long-awaited inaugural festival, bringing two full days of jam, folk, indie-rock, R&B, funk, roots-rock, and more to Hartford, Conn.’s Bushnell Park. On the historic grounds and against the gleaming edifice of the Connecticut State Capitol Building, the festival presented such esteemed acts as The Head and the Heart, The Revivalists, Guster, Dispatch, Trampled By Turtles and more, but the weekend’s true highlight arrived with the Saturday night headline performance from My Morning Jacket. In 15 tracks, the pioneering alt-rockers presented a set that showcased all of its many sides, honoring a wide range of selections from its 26-year catalog and treating fans to a sit-in from Dave Simonett and two debut Carpenters covers.

My Morning Jacket stormed the stage with the 2003 barn-burner “Mahgeetah,” then plowed ahead through the years with 2015’s  “Compound Fracture” and 2005’s “Gideon” before coming to the live staple “Wordless Chorus.” As the band turned to the light and airy “Wonderful (The Way I Feel),” Jim James introduced Trampled By Turtles’ Simonett, who added transcendent harmonies to the treatment.

MMJ kept on with classics like “I’m Amazed” and “Anytime” and newer entries like “Run It” and “Never in the Real World” before moving along to the final movements of the performance. The band marked this turn with a jaw-dropping debut cover of the Carpenters’ classic heart-breaker “Superstar,” building a stripped-back and stirring solo verse from James into an explosive full-band chorus. When a massive jam and final stretch burned down to embers, James fanned the flames once more with a half-treatment of the Carpenters’ “(They Long to Be) Close to You),” which had the whole of the crowd calling the timeless lyrics back to the stage. 

At the end of a performance for the books, My Morning Jacket closed out the first night of The Capitol Groove with the sprawling two-part Evil Urges epic “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream.” The band will take the stage again tonight for a set at Grand Rapids, Mich.’s Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. For tickets and more information on the band’s exhaustive summer tour, visit https://www.mymorningjacket.com/tour.

Read on for the complete setlist from Saturday’s performance, and watch a fan-recorded video of the band’s Carpenters tribute below.

My Morning Jacket
The Capitol Groove
Bushnell Park – Hartford, Conn.
6/29/24
Set: Mahgeetah, Compound Fracture, Gideon, Wordless Chorus, Wonderful (The Way I Feel)*, Run It, I’m Amazed, Never in the Real World, Anytime, Steam Engine, Superstar+, (They Long to Be) Close to You, Spring (Among the Living), Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1, Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2
Notes:
* w/ Dave Simonett
+ Debut cover of the Carpenters

Setlist via setlist.fm.