“Oslo 1888” is not here, or now, but it’s about how both of those things don’t really change that much.

Track: “Oslo 1888”
Album: Unreleased

John Darnielle played “Oslo 1888” in Belgium in 1996. He got a minute into it and apologized to the crowd for missing a line, said he knew no one would have noticed because they don’t know the song, and started over anyway. This explains his “compensation” line as he kicks into a louder, furious version of it that you can hear from a recorded version of that same show. You have to respect that dedication to fidelity, even in a world where not a single person could even say if you had dropped a stitch or not.

What is the significance of 1888? Almost certainly a year, but why that year? You could guess, sure, and you could do some rudimentary research on the history of Norway, but I think it’s safe to assume it’s just designed to get you thinking about some other time. That show was in Belgium, but most of Darnielle’s audience was in the States. Most of the location-specific Mountain Goats songs aren’t so much about where you are as they are about being somewhere different. You’ve never pictured Scandinavia in the late 1880s. Why would you? But you have felt some of these emotions. This unites the two people, you and this centuries-old stranger, and it makes you think about another time.