"Take Me Back Outside"

So, I finally got to see Conor Oberst live.  I came close twice in New Orleans and again in Knoxville, but neither time panned out.  Everything worked out in Austin.  Do you want to see the pictures I took?

I guess everyone needs a vacation sometimes, and my camera decided that Friday would be it.  The video I took was also extremely disappointing, with horrid sound quality and blurry images.  But, I remember the show fondly.  It was, almost, a perfect show and, without a doubt,  the best I've seen in ages (well, at least since May).  

It was barely hampered by the fact that it was at an outdoor venue and that it was in the forties.  It was barely hampered by the fact that the first of two opening acts was, inexplicably, a hip-hop band that combined overwrought lyrics with hipster '80s nostalgia pretension.  It was aided immeasurably by the fact that the second opening act was the Felice Brothers, who put on such a stupendous show that I went home and downloaded their album and have since listened to it several times.

And then there was Conor, performing here as 'Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band' in support of the Conor Oberst self-titled CD, which I delight in.  However, he seems to want to put a great distinction between 'Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band' and 'Bright Eyes', and thus, at this show, performed no Bright Eyes songs that I recognized.  It is possible some of the filler tracks were Bright Eyes B-sides, but I doubt it.  I think they were unreleased tracks from the self-titled album, since no one else in the audience seemed familiar with them either.

But anyway, delight in these videos, which aren't my own (since mine were awful), nor are they from the Austin show...but they're essentially the same thing.

The Felice Brothers

Proving that sometimes he performs both Bright Eyes standards and Mystic Valley new material

Souled Out!!