Article Contributed by Gabriel David Barkin
Published on 2026-10-12
My Morning Jacket | The Fillmore | San Francisco, CA | October 6th, 2026 - photos by Gabriel David Barkin
My Morning Jacket (MMJ) completed a triumphant run of seven shows over the past week at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore Auditorium. The historic residency followed on the heels of a showcase performance at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass the day before the first Fillmore gig.
MMJ has come a long way since their early touring days. In 2002, following the release of their second album, they opened for British band Doves on tour at Slim’s in San Francisco. (MMJ’s first Fillmore appearance was the following night, also in the opener slot.) Singer Jim James in particular was something of an onstage wallflower back then, hiding behind a mane of hair that hung in front of his eyes and working his mic in a pensive, reserved manner.
At the Fillmore, James was his more modern self, the “Jim James” that MMJ fans have come to know and love for over two decades now. He poses like a rock god and flails his guitars like battle axes. Drummer Patrick Hallahan is equally animated, often raising his sticks high to accentuate emotional musical moments. With bandmates Carl Broemel on guitars, pedal steel, and saxophone, Tom Blankenship on bass (the only founding member left alongside James), and Bo Koster on keys, MMJ stands out as one of the most commanding Americana rock and jam bands on the road today.
Befitting their current stature, MMJ brought their own light show in full force to the Fillmore for the sold-out spree. Smoke machines filled the entire hall to accentuate the uber-colorful light show. Each night was billed ostensibly as a different color of the rainbow, played in order from red (Saturday, October 3) to violet (Sunday, October 11). Fans were encouraged to dress in that night’s color.
On the nights I attended, there was little attention paid to the color-of-the-night other than the opening spotlights when the shows began. (A few audience members dressed appropriately each night, to be fair.) For instance, Broemel was bathed in yellow on Tuesday night for the appropriate opener “Golden,” but the rest of the evening was lit in MMJ’s typical full-spectrum style. (The pictures here are all from that evening.)
The septet of Fillmore shows, from Saturday, October 3 through Sunday, October 11, included a total of 117 unique songs out of 150 total played. For the first four nights, there were no repeats in the selection of 88 songs. Friday night’s show broke the mold, repeating a dozen songs from the previous four nights. (To be clear, the band delivered on their promise that no block of two or three nights in a row would have repeats. And no song was played more than twice altogether.)
MMJ played 18 songs on stage for the first time ever. Most of these were covers, but the premieres also included Jim James’ solo songs “Lost Child” and “Come Again,” both from James’ latest solo album Wowed Out, which was released this summer.
The list of covers included several songs from the Grateful Dead songbook, befitting the venue that hosted that seminal band numerous times. On Tuesday, for instance, guest Karina Rykman joined on bass to rock out on the Dead’s “Franklin’s Tower” before segueing into a powerful version of Radiohead’s “The National Anthem” and then a close-out, balls-out jam on MMJ’s “Run Thru.” Grahame Lesh was a guest on the final night, joining for MMJ premieres of “Sugar Magnolia” and “Box of Rain.”
Other guests included Molly Tuttle on Saturday (on Jerry Garcia’s “Sugaree,” Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People,” and Dolly Parton’s “Eagle When She Flies”) and Australian singer Grace Cummings on Wednesday (on “Scarlet Begonias,” among other songs). L.A.-based crooner Tyler Ballgame added his vocals on Sunday too, chiming in on George Harrison’s “Behind That Locked Door” and the Dead’s “Brown-Eyed Women.”
Mikaela Davis was on stage with James singing and playing harp for the encore on Tuesday. With the rest of the band offstage, the duo played a mellow cover of Kate Bush’s “This Woman's Work.” Davis, decked in a superhero cape, stayed on stage when the band returned for the MMJ premiere of James’ Monsters of Folk song “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.).”
Garcia’s Fender Stratocaster Alligator, his Martin D-28 herringbone acoustic, and Bob Weir’s Modulus Blackknife electric also made “guest appearances” on the final weekend in the capable hands of Jim James, generously loaned by their owner Andy Logan of Grateful Guitars Foundation.
With this epic run under their belt, MMJ cemented their place in the pantheon of Fillmore residencies, leaving their ardent fans with only one request: More, please!
