The opening bands for Bright Eyes were Head of Femur and Arab Strap. We only caught the second half of Head of Femur, and it was hard to pay attention to the music because I was so distracted by the singer's gigantic curly hair. They were okay. Arab Strap sounded pretty good, it had a bass and a violin but no drums (just a drum machine), which made for an interesting sound, though their music is so depressing I was ready to slit my wrists even before Bright Eyes came out. The cover of "Shook Me All Night Long" done with a Scottish accent was the exception. Weird.

Anyhow, the Barrymore was packed to see Bright Eyes. First of all, those of you who thought the concert would be full of young indie girls throwing themselves at Conor had it backwards. It was the young indie boys who couldn't control themselves. When Conor first walked on stage, throngs of boys in emo glasses and mesh farm hats tilted on their sides (when did that come into style, and why?) rushed to the stage and continued to shout at Conor all throughout the concert. I felt like I was supposed to bow or something when he came out with all the hype that's been thrown around him. I also was expecting more of a brooding, sexy, sensitive artist-type from all the pictures I'd seen of him; but in reality, Conor Oberst is TINY. It was almost comical, this little skinny boy with overstyled hair rigidly playing his guitar. Is he really dating Winona Ryder? Let's hope not. And that hair- he just couldn't stop tucking it behind his ears, even during a song.

But on to the show. The opening song, One Foot In Front Of The Other (a new one that can be found on the Saddle Creek 50 compilation) was pretty amazing. It began with just Conor and his guitar and slowly, the other 5-6 members of the band joined in. I was surprised by how good his voice sounded, especially since later we realized he was sick as people kept bringing him kleenex, water, and eventually an entire bottle of wine as he coughed. So maybe that explains why the breaks between songs were so long and quiet, leaving plenty of time for the indie boys in the audience to shout at Conor ("Winona Ryder!" "You suck!" "You rock!" "Omaha!"). I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that one, since he might have had SARS.

The highlight for me was when he played A Perfect Sonnet. This was the song I wanted to hear above anything, because its so fucking good, though I knew there was pretty much no way it could live up to my expectations. It came pretty close though. The full band played along, including these bells that sounded amazing. I'll admit, tears sprang to my eyes.

Waste of Paint was another bright spot of the night, though I think it's also one of the better songs on Lifted. This was just Conor solo, and he sang it so passionately. Bright Eyes is definitely at its best when he screams. I was really impressed all night with how good his voice sounded live; the cds sometimes indicate otherwise.

The other song I really wanted to hear was The Calendar Hung Itself, and I lucked out there too. This was also done with the full band and some fun new instruments (trumpet??). More good screaming from Conor.

There were some songs that were a little boring, generally the ones I find boring on the cds as well. The encore was a little lackluster, a "cover" of a song from his guitarist's band "The Bruces" (which I liked) and a final solo performance that was cute but didn't shock or awe me.

Overall, when Conor is good, he's really good and I'm definitely glad I went. With the full band I got to hear some of my favorite songs in a different way. Conor could definitely work on his between-song banter though, instead of letting the indie kids in the audience do it for him.

-Nicole