Bright Eyes

Oh, Bright Eyes. So serious. So sad. I feel like Conor Oberst falls into that category of musicians that I always dislike most passionately: whiny white folky bullshit. So I fully cannot explain why I love him so much. I can say that I'll forgive the person responsible for creating the songs "Lover I Don't Have to Love," "Road to Joy," and most especially "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)" has carte blanche from me to do pretty much whatever the hell he feels like. Even do a concert that's almost entirely backlit as though he's daring you to look directly at him. Or delivering a rant in the middle of said concert about how war is always bad (a sentiment I fully concur with) that made him sound unintelligent and juvenile. My reaction? His heart's in the right place, and I'm sure he's just shy. Note: you can argue me on these points, but I have made my decision that they're true!

Here's the thing: I have never had, nor will I ever again have tickets for a concert as good as the ones I had last night. Second row, dead center at Radio City with it's low, low stage, I was practically on stage. In fact, in the video I posted here, you can see me sporadically, most notably when Oberst steps off the stage onto the chair directly in front of me. Not to reveal how silly my thoughts are sometimes, but I did have a legitimate moment where I thought, "He's coming to sweep me off my feet." Besides the fact that I was a random person among literal thousands, I'm also fairly certain he's a straight man. Moral of the story? I watch too many movies. WAY too many movies. Also, apparently I still want to marry a rock star. How teenager of me!

The concert was fantastic. How much I appreciated it because of sheer proximity, I can't say, but Oberst has an incredibly charming charmlessness about him. It's like he just can't figure out how to interact with...life. And that somehow becomes endearing. His songs are insanely earnest, but they're also thoughtful, periodically incisive, periodically naive, anf very often clever. What I appreciate most about them is the severe openness and unfiltered quality. Take for instance the lyric from "Shell Games:" "My private life is an inside joke; No one will explain it to me." It's a hysterical line, but I don't even know if it's supposed to be funny! I actually don't think it is. He's the negative of a Lady Gaga--everything she does is artifice. I love that. Nothing he does seems to be. I love that too. It's the middle of the road people I find so tedious.

The setlist included my three favorite songs of his. "Take It Easy" came near the top of the show, and I can't quite explain how thrilling it was to be five feet away from someone singing one of my favorite songs of all time. It's rivaled on my 25 Most Played iTunes list only by Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black." It was stupid exciting. He also played songs from the fantastic new album, "The People's Key," including "Firewall," "Jejune Stars" (yes, that's really the title), and "Triple Spiral." The only downside was that he didn't play the new album's "Haile Selassie." Yes, that's also really the title.

In the end, I feel like I probably shouldn't like him. I can't help myself, though. I really love him in all his pretentious navel-gazing glory.