After the disappointment of Cassadega I had mostly given up on Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes. I figured the young genius had been tagged the new Bob Dylan too soon and had just burned out. Instead it seems that was just a minor setback while he rethought things. He came back last year with an energetic and entertaining self-titled album and a tour with The Mystic Valley Band. This year saw the release of Outer South attributed to the Mystic Valley Band. While Conor Oberst the album was terrific start to finish, MVB and their record Outer South caused me some confusion, basically why doesn’t Conor, one of the most identifiable voices in my music library, sound like Conor all the time?
The answer to that turned out to be pretty simple, it’s because it wasn’t him. Outer South is a true band record, and three other members contribute songs to the record. Not that there is anything wrong with the songs themselves, no they’re just fine, it’s just that I want my Conor records to sound like him. Luckily for tonight’s set he kept the contributions from the rest of the band to a minimum, with the two guitarists each contributing one song to the hour plus set. Conor came out wearing a giant Zorro-style hat, smiling broadly, looking adorable and dedicating every other song to Michael Jackson who had died that day. We figured it was only a matter of time before “I Don’t Want to Die in a Hospital” was a dedication, we were right.
Unsurprisingly, the set list consisted exclusively of the two Mystic Valley records. Which is fine, it’s good stuff, but it makes me a little sad to think I’ll never hear anything from the extensive and mostly brilliant Bright Eyes catalog again. I’ve seen him play entire shows of unreleased material and drive the kids away in droves, but tonight he seemed content to stick to what we knew. I’m not sure if the first record is actually better or if I just know it better, but those were certainly my favorite songs in the set, the short but manic “NYC- Gone, Gone,” the pretty “Sausalito” and the afore-mentioned “Hospital,” a manically catchy burst of pure pop fun. It had been years since I had seen Conor, and tonight’s very enjoyable set made me realize just how much I missed him.
The other thing I realized I missed was multi-instrumentalist Dan McMahon who is inexplicably no longer a part of the Wandering Sons who played on the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard stage just before the Mystic Valley Band. The Fox Valley band is now actually referred to as Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons in case we had somehow forgotten the name of the band’s handsome and formerly enigmatic lead singer. Rumor has it the band has signed to a division of a major label, which is certainly exciting for a Wisconsin band, but they are a whole lot less interesting without McMahon. One good thing, their sleepy set did make it remarkably easy for us to get close to the stage for the final show of the night.
Riverboat Gamblers
Corey Chisel & the Wandering Sons
Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band
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