I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 2, 2019] Better Oblivion Community Center

I’m not often on the pulse of what is trending in music.  Sometimes I’m ahead, often I’m not all that interested.  But every once in a while it converges.  And thus on April 2 I was part of one of the hippest crowds in town.

I got there pretty early as I knew it was sold out (it sold out very quickly).  And I was standing pretty close to Phoebe Bridgers.  Earlier this year, I did not get to see the boygenius shows (they didn’t come close enough to us).  But I have now seen each of the women solo twice (this is my second Bridgers show and yes, it counts).

There was a photo-op when you walked in.  A life-size cutout for you to take an ID photo for the BOCC.  I declined to do that, but I did get the fun squeezable stress-house.

The band came out and they started playing songs from the album.  I didn’t know the album all that well (I was amazed at how many people knew all the words), but I’d enjoyed what I’d heard.   I expected a kind of folk-rock show.  I was in no way prepared for how much the show rocked and how much fun the show would be.  There were even beach balls thrown around!

They opened with “My Town” and they sounded great together.  I liked that they didn’t play songs in order.  I also liked that they didn’t play the wonderful and by-now ubiquitous “Dylan Thomas” first or even last.  It was a great injection of fun in the middle of the set.

But I was really surprised at how much “Big Black Heart” rocked–heavy guitars and Phoebe using her best screaming.  They also really rocked out “Sleepwalkin‘”

I wondered how they would fill out a show having released one album.  That was answered because each musician has an excellent well from which to draw.  And the twist was that Phoebe sang the Bright Eyes songs while Conor sang the Phoebe songs.

I was never that much of a fan of Oberst.  I was sort of inundated with him when he first came out and I grew unfairly sick of him.  I also thought it was weird how much he sounded like Paul Westerberg.  But hearing his songs in this context (and seeing what a good sport he was) really changed my attitude about him.  (I actually heard someone behind me say “no one would believe I’m at a Conor Oberst concert”).

After Phoebe sang Bright Eyes’ “Bad Blood,” the first props of the night came out.  Phoebe and Conor sat on lawn chairs in the middle of the stage.  This was fun, although it is quite difficult to see singers when the get down near the floor (unless you’re upstairs.  But they clearly had fun lounging and singing “Exception to the Rule.”

Then it was time for the highly anticipated Replacements cover.  Obviosuly Oberst is a perfect candidate for singing “Can’t Hardly Wait,” but this was an opportunity to showoff Phoebe’s punk leanings.  She can wail and roar with any classic alt-rocker.  Although she was in the wrong key when they started “nice going, Phoebe,” she chided.  “I don’t think I’ve ever been in the wrong key before,” she said.  “That’s very Replacements,” Oberst observed.  Their version was fantastic.   Rocking and respectful but loose and disheveled just like the ‘Mats.  Oberst said he would like their whole show to be like that.

After a couple of more songs from the album they played the new 7″ single “Little Trouble.”  They also introduced (and raved about Christian Lee Hutson–who was most behind a keyboard, but who came out once in a while.  The rest of the band was pretty much the same band that Phoebe Bridgers had at her show.

Bassist Anna Butterss was back looking striking like last time.  For a few songs she went over by Christian and sang with him.  Her drummer Marshall Vore played for them as well.  He duetted with Phoebe when I saw them, but did not do so here.  After Phoebe sang another Bright Eyes song, it was time for Conor to cover a Phoebe song.  He chose one of the saddest songs I know, “Funeral.”  But rather than playing it in the mournful way that Phoebe does, he imagined it as a kind of punk song with Pheobe singing the refrain “Jesus Christ I’m so blue” in good punk style.

They ended the set with one more song from the album (and by this time Oberst was totally rocking out).

After a short encore break, they came back out to do three more songs (people, you have to stop chanting ‘one more song’ or they’ll start taking songs away).

The first was Conor singing Phoebe’s lovely “Scott Street.”  Then Phoebe sang the Bright Eyes song “Easy/Lucky/Free.”  They ended the show with a rocking version of “Dominos” from the album.  So they played the entire album, a bunch of covers and a new song in about 80 minutes.  It was a ton of fun.

As the lights came up they played recordings of people confessing to the, presumably, the Better Oblivion Hotline.  During the ads for the album, they showed phone numbers on-screen.  I have to wonder if these recordings were from people who had called the hotline.

For those who can’t read the top and bottom of the setlist, it says

“Let’s do it to them before they do it to us”

and

“Fuck…Shit…Piss” which I assume made somebody (like me) chuckle.

It was a lot of fun being cool for a night, and the headliners did not disappoint.

Setlist (bold songs are from the album)

My City
Big Black Heart
Sleepwalkin’
Forest Lawn
Dylan Thomas
Bad Blood (Bright Eyes cover)
Exception to the Rule
Can’t Hardly Wait (The Replacements cover)
Chesapeake
Service Road
Little Trouble (new single)
Lime Tree (Bright Eyes cover)
Funeral (Phoebe Bridgers cover)
Didn’t Know What I Was In For

Encore:

Scott Street (Phoebe Bridgers cover)
Easy/Lucky/Free (Bright Eyes cover)
Dominos