For those who believe that live concerts are just artists replicating songs word-for-word and riff-for-riff, the cure is seeing My Morning Jacket live. When you hear an album by the eclectic quintet, or even listen to a recording of a live performance, you can still feel some restraint in the solos, jamming and general noise. Not so when you see them in concert. Whatever heaviness was hidden by recording vanishes the instant the band picks up their instruments and starts playing. The guitars slice the air and the drumming threatens your ears, all while Tommy Blankenship keeps time on bass and Bo Koster underlines the sound with his keyboards. To say the least, it is an awe-inspiring sight, one to which Greek Theatre patrons witnessed at Friday's concert, dubbed "An Evening with My Morning Jacket."

The band opened with "Evil Urges" and the crowd was already on their side and ready to be put into a noise-induced frenzy. Amid Patrick Hallahan's thunderous drums and Carl Broemel's guitar, frontman Jim James was unsurprisingly off tune. It hardly mattered, as the spectacle of the band overpowered the music anyway. James' antics were especially outrageous throughout the concert. His guitar freakouts were worthy of the guitar god title Rolling Stone bestowed upon him, and even when a guitar was not in hand, he staggered dazedly across the stage, half-singing half-screaming into the microphone. It was showmanship that complemented the overall shrieking atmosphere of the performance.

Luckily, the band was gracious enough to let the audience breathe once in a while. Their wonderful "Thank You Too" was as gorgeous as it was on record, and "Sec Walkin'" provided a reminder of the band's country roots. Evil Urges ended up dominating most of the set, from the spacey "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt 1." to the metronomic "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2" to the sweet ballad "Librarian." The band also touched on early releases such as At Dawn and It Still Moves, two albums that suited the night's wall-of-sound approach. There was not a moment when you weren't surrounded by either applause and yelling or a blanket of guitar noise, which was just what My Morning Jacket wanted.

This approach demonstrated that the band was taking the idea of arena rock seriously. Even more peaceful Z numbers like "Gideon" were turned into waves of noise at times, and melodic songs like "Wordless Chorus" were wilder than their album counterparts. The overall sound wasn't always cohesive either; guitar riffs occasionally clashed with James' vocals, and dissonance often clouded the speakers. The reasons for this laissez faire-type method were never stated, and the energy was too high for anyone to care.

One choice, however, was more revealing, as My Morning Jacket saved their somewhat divisive "Highly Suspicious" for their seven-song encore. It was a move that you could have anticipated, given the song's unpopularity among some fans. It was My Morning Jacket's way of saying that they are going to continue to do whatever they want. The encore set did end with the fan favorite "One Big Holiday"-a song whose record version will impress you and whose live rendition will stun you senseless-but the message was quite clear. My Morning Jacket don't care what critics think about their riskier numbers. They believe those numbers are powerful enough for an encore, and if we don't like it, we can walk out early. No one with any sense did.