Bright Eyes @ the Greek Theatre 5.4.07

Conor Oberst has my dream job. Not only does he have complete control of his art, but he has the means to recruit brilliant musicians (Emmylou Harris, Jim James, M. Ward, Jenny Lewis, Gillian Welch to name a few) to realize it. Last Friday he and his friends held a neo-art-folk summit at the classic Greek Theater in Berkeley. On the bill with him was a nice dip in the reverb sea with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and a duo set from the devilishly angelic Gillian Welch and the incomparable David Rawlins.

Bright Eyes’ set started with the same psychic/orchestral sample that starts their new album Cassadaga (which is a gem BTW) while the stage swirled with the real time effects of a guy behind an overhead projector. Throughout the show this artist scribbled, painted and de-petaled flowers on an overhead projector that displayed images as big as the Greek’s massive stage. This was very original in my opinion but also very distracting at times.

Conor led his 12-piece ensemble through most of Cassadaga’s songs while only touching on 2 other albums from his vast repertoire (annoyingly but understandably given most of the musicians on stage were the ones that sessioned for Cassadaga). Highlights included a reworked Calypso infused version of “First Day of My Life” from 2005's I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and a nice rocking but definitely acoustic take on the once computerized “I Believe in Symmetry” (off of Wide Awake’s fraternal twin Digital Ash in a Digital Urn).

Due to time constraint’s Bright Eyes played only a 50 minute set (Conor even scathed “Apparently the stage turns into a pumpkin at a certain time so we have to speed things up”) before squeezing in an all-star 3 song encore (not including the “Happy Birthday” singalong to a friend). It started with Jim James singing lead on John Prine’s classic “All the Best”. Then came a great version of Gillian’s “Look at Miss Ohio” followed by a error filled but genuine “At the Bottom of Everything” to close down the night.

The MVP of the night goes to Gillian Welch and David Rawlins whose set captivated the 2/3 capacity crowd. Songs like “Orphan Girl” and a steam engine fueled cover of Johnny Cash’s “Jackson” prove that sometimes 2 can be better than 12.

Bright Eyes set: Clairaudients, Hot Knives, Middleman, First Day of My Life, Make a Plan to Love Me, Classic Cars, No One Would Riot For Less, Cleanse Song, I Believe in Symmetry

E: All the Best, Happy Birthday, Look at Miss Ohio, At the Bottom of Everything


Gillian and Dave: Orphan Girl, Elvis Presley Blues, My First Lover, No One Knows My Name, Do it Anyway?, I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll, One Job, Revelator, By the Mark, Jackson


Jim James: Anytime, Dancehalls, Hopefully, I Will be There when you Die, X-mas Curtain, Gideon, ?, Bermuda Highway, ?