Last night was the Bright Eyes concert at Mac Hall. I really enjoyed the latest album "I'm Wide Awake It's Morning", and I have another album also. I figured it would be worth the stand. I always felt Bright Eyes had some brilliant songwriting, and who can resist that voice of Conor Oberst's?
So I lined up with my friend, and we got into Mac Hall a little bit before Gruff Rhys' set. If you've never been to Mac Hall, its kind of an industrial looking area, with concrete floors and metal beams. We stood at the back of the area that would be known as the mosh pit if it wasn't a Bright Eyes concert. It wasn't too packed at the time. Gruff Rhys kinda was interesting, he sang a couple songs in some welsh dialect, and some in english. I enjoyed him, a little different from Bright Eyes but still very good, he had a nice voice.
After this was a quick break, and we moved forward a bit. By this time it was pretty packed ahead and behind us. We still had a good view of the stage. So Bright Eyes comes on, and Conor's in the middle looking thin as hell with this tight grey emo hoodie (hood up of course). It was excellent. They sang the first song, and he took off his hood. Which might've been the best part, cause of his pretty face and his shaggy brown hair. Conor Oberst is one attractive young man. I'll go through the highlights now though.
Highlights
-Ship in A Bottle
-When Conor stopped at the beginning of "First Day of My Life" and said "You guys make me nervous, hearing all your pretty voices against my alley cat noise".
-First Day of My Life
-Someone told Conor to chug his beer and he replied into the mike "I take baby sips, baby sips"
-Another Travellin' Song. Conor changed the lyrics a bit.
-When Conor told us you really needed a good education to get a good job these days, because we were at U 0f C. "It really doesn't matter if you like your job, you just need a nice house and a nice car"
-Whenever Conor talked
-When Conor dedicated one of his songs to Colin Wilson, who wrote the Outsiders "a long boring book". And another one to his bassist Dan, who was the only one who'd drink with him at 4 o' clock in the afternoon. "Cause the rest of my friends are at work, and the others aren't crazy"
-Poison Oak
-The encore with Gruff Rhys
Lowlights
-People were smoking skunk weed during Poison Oak. It smelt awful.
-The annoying girls who'd yell "I LOVE YOU CONOR"
-The only guy pumping his fist in the mosh pit.
Bright Eyes is a great live band, and Conor Oberst is sexier in person. He is a great songwriter. With a pretty voice.
This entire ordeal prompted me to spell out "C0NOR O. = HAWT" in my locker.
this isn"t really about me
- hilary m.
- I don't like chicken, cilantro or the watery paints in the art room. I also dislike intolerance, pretentiousness and people who are condescending toward adolescents. I talk quite a bit so I guess it's good to write things down. I think music, movies and art can influence you when you let your guard down. It's important to let your guard down sometimes.
7 comments:
Great review! And it sounds like it was an incredible show, love-yelling girls and fist-pumpers aside. I love it when the openers come back on to do a duet encore.
I really like Mac Hall for shows and Mac Ballroom is even nicer.
And Wickham Hall at Mount Royal College is tiny but great.
Any musician who plays an all ages venue is doing things right, in my books. I'd rather be at a show with younger people who want to hear the music than old farts who want to drink. And I'm an old fart.
I really like Mac Hall, although my legs ached as soon as I tried to walk. I remember the Mac Ballroom from the Hour, it was really nice.
I really agree. It frustrates me when artists come to town and only play at bars. Like Martha Wainwright. Errr, I'll never completly forgive her for coming and playing a bar. I might go to the Lions, Tigers and Bears show at Knox. I love how they're doing concerts there now!
Yeah, Knox is a really neat venue. You saw the Billy Cowsill thing there too, didn't you?
We were way too far back at the Hawksley Workman concert there. It was still great but you couldn't see much. What a beautiful building though.
That was mean of Martha - and Joel Plaskett too!
They played in Van last Sunday - it was an open air concert in Stanley Park (nice). My daughter had the pleasure of attending and is still raving about it. I wasn't able to go, but at least she got some great pics and video. They are fantastic!
Barbara, I didn't get to go! I was very sad. My parents were super tired, and we were leaving for Victoria at 6AM the next day. Oh well. A bit disappointing though. I really don't see the point of going to bars. I think the atmosphere and the attitude of the crowd would be much better at all-ages venues.
Deb, Gruff Rhys was talking about the Vancouver concert. How there was an eagle or something on a tree watching the concert. That would've been lovely.
Great review! I'm still bummed I missed them in Stanley Park. I loved your note of Conor's response to the audienes nice voices against his "alley cat noise"...'First Day of My Life' is one of my favourites.
First Day of My Life was magical. I think he should've done it as an encore. I watched the video about a billion times after the concert, cause it makes me smile.
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