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ACL review: Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst took the stage on Saturday evening as himself, having shed his “Bright Eyes” identity in August with the release of a self-titled album. Dressed in a suit, his look was more like Jeff Tweedy and less like the cult-leader Colonel Sanders impression he offered up during his spring 2007 stop at UT’s Bass Concert Hall.
The Mystic Valley Band’s seasoned country rock sound complemented Oberst’s new material perfectly, especially on songs like “Get-Well-Cards,” where Oberst bends his voice like Bob Dylan as he sings “right there, that’s the postman sleeping in the sand.” He has been likened to Dylan before, but with the new band, especially Nate Walcott’s blasting keyboards and organ, the comparison is especially apt. All Oberst needed was a white fedora with a feather.
Oberst’s songs are typically dark, but the new material seems to be lacking the underlying sense of hope that exists on albums like “I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning.” He conveyed a feeling of resignation about the state of the world as he belted out emotional verions of songs such as “Souled Out!” and “I Don’t Want To Die (In the Hospital).”
Oberst’s cover of Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome” was an unexpected highlight, and it had the crowd moving their feet. The band stuck pretty closely to the original, with Simon’s retrospective lyrics a good match for Oberst’s sentimentality.
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