The Mountain Goats, NPR Music Live At The Newport Folk Festival 2013

The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle spent the 1990s recording his songs — just a voice, an acoustic guitar and bracingly articulate lyrics about catastrophe and survival — on low-fidelity equipment like boom boxes. It got to the point where the tape hiss felt like another instrument, but in the last decade, the Mountain Goats' music has become ever more polished. Darnielle now leads a full, versatile band, but his songwriting retains the capacity to stun: His songs can be gracefully poetic, painfully visceral and warmly empathetic, all at once.

Live, Darnielle is often wryly funny — and versatile enough to follow a somber ballad about death with a thunderous anthem. Hear The Mountain Goats perform as part of the 2013 Newport Folk Festival, recorded live on Friday, July 26 in Newport, R.I. -- STEPHEN THOMPSON

SET LIST

"Love Love Love"
"Amy AKA Spent Gladiator"
"Southwood Plantation Road"
"Up The Wolves"
"Animal Masks"
"Lion's Teeth"
"Woke Up New"
"You Were Cool"
"White Cedar"
"Cubs In Five"
"Cry For Judas"
"The Mess Inside"
"First Few Desperate Hours"
"Psalms 40:2"