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Review: Bright Eyes concert raw as open wound

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Posted: September 20, 2007 - 1:02 am

By Sarah Henning
Anchorage Daily News

Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst stepped up to the mic looking orphan chic: underfed and big-eyed, with dark, greasy curtains of hair falling into his pasty face.

Bright Eyes in ANC: Bright Eyes' frontman Conor Oberst wails at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium Wednesday night. Bob Hallinen/Daily News

Out came a voice that was beautifully unnerving, like Tina Fey’s scar, or a starfish with an arm missing.

Wednesday night in the Wendy Williamson Auditorium, Bright Eyes walked a musical tightrope between Lyle Lovett and David Bowie, with Springsteen coaching from the platform. The band’s characteristically random changes in key, tempo and dynamics emphasized Oberst’s throbbingly honest lyrics about everything from holy wars to the afterlife to cougars. (The older woman predator kind, not the furry kind.)

The band repeats tonight, same venue.

Writing about Bright Eyes is daunting, because there are only so many synonyms for “depressing.”

Not because Oberst is a listless performer, but because he relentlessly leaks heartsick all over the stage. The comparisons of Oberst’s lyricist talents to Bob Dylan’s are tired, but not off base. Every other lyric this guy writes is like a quote out of Bartlett’s. Written by Morrissey. At a funeral.

Try this, from “Classic Cars”: “Never trust a heart that is so bent it can’t break.”

Or this, from “Four Winds”: “The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'an's mute/
If you burned them all together you'd get close to the truth.”

It’s a rare concert where the instrumentation is this surprising. On top of the usual guitar-drums-bass combo, the five musicians layered pedal steel and trumpet, or organ and mandolin, in the most unexpected ways. In a few songs, the recordings’ violin tracks were noticeably absent. But overall, the band provided a huge and varied sound, often making it seem like many more people were on stage.

Unfortunately, there was one train wreck to report. “If the Brakeman Turns My Way” is one of the most mature and instantly likeable tracks on the band’s April release “Cassadaga,” but live the song became a struggle. There appeared to be something wrong with the sound mix. The vocal melody was completely overpowered by the secondary melodies of the droning keyboards and piercing pedal steel. It was ugly, but over soon and not repeated.

The only real disappointment of the evening was the audience. Anchorage’s white belters and students clearly need a stern talking to about how bands feed off audience vibes.

Between songs, the eerily quiet crowd often made the band members visibly uncomfortable, sucking the energy out of the room. But the pros persisted. They began joking around as if they were at rehearsal instead of performing, and eventually got some rock show behavior out of the audience in time for a standing ovation.

Hopefully, tonight’s fans will be more vocally appreciative of what will easily go down as one of the top five rock shows in Anchorage this year.

If you go
Bright Eyes
When: 7:30 p.m. today
Where: UAA’s Wendy Williamson Auditorium
How much: $30, $25 students

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Review: Bright Eyes concert raw as open wound

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