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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2008 > September > 29 > Entry
ACL aftershow review: Conor Oberst, M. Ward and Jenny Lewis
M. Ward took the stage first to start off Conor Oberst’s aftershow at La Zona Rosa around 10 p.m Sunday, without the high-powered band that accompanied him during his Friday set at the festival. Ward is just as good solo as he is with his band, however, as the big sound of his finger-picking style compensates for the lack of umph. He played a few repeats from his Friday set, including, “Sad, Sad Song” and “Chinese Translation,” before bringing out Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who appeared at the festival on Sunday. Rawlings and Ward traded licks and Welch sang backup on Ward’s “Fuel For Fire,” a mellow cover of “It Hurts Me Too” and Ward’s “One Life Away” to finish the set.
Lewis came out second. Her performance on Friday in the WaMu tent was good, but inside La Zona Rosa the show was bigger and better. Lewis and her band played mostly the same set as they did at the festival, starting off with “Jack Killed Mom” and “Rise Up With Fists.” Lewis’ chemistry with the rest of the band is one of her strong suits, as when she trades verses with guitarist Jonathan Rice on songs such as “Carpetbaggers.” The onstage collaboration of Ward’s set continued when Gillian Welch and David Rawlings made their second appearance of the evening to sing with the band on “Acid Tongue,” and later when Ward joined the band on “Pretty Bird.”
The crowd seemed fairly worn out by the time Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band came on after midnight, and Oberst joked that he “only thought he was going to die like three times” over the weekend. The set was more varied than Saturday night’s at the festival, with three different members of the band providing lead vocals at different points. In addition to songs off Oberst’s recently released self-titled album, such as “Moab,” “Get-Well-Cards” and “NYC-Gone, Gone,” the band offered up a bluesy cover of “Corrina, Corrina” with Jenny Lewis guitarist Blake Mills joining them on stage, as well as a fun cover of Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome,” which they also did on Saturday.
After finishing the set with “I Don’t Want To Die (In The Hospital),” Oberst returned to the stage with M. Ward for “Lenders in the Temple,” Ward’s “O’brien/o’brien’s Nocturne,” and “Smoke Without Fire” and a couple others before bringing out, you guessed it, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. It was nearly 2 a.m. by the time the four closed with a cover of Lucinda Williams’ “Sharp Cutting Wings (Song to a Poet).”
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: ACL 2008: Sunday, ACL Festival
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By bruce walker
November 10, 2008 5:09 PM | Link to this
Where do I find pictures of Conor Oberst playing at the festival and pictures of him at the aftershow at La Zona Rosa. I am the one who made his new guitar strap. Please get back to me. Thanks, Bruce D. Walker www.flyingpossum.com