Bright Eyes Dimming

To celebrate MLK Day, my dear friend Edna and I went to go see the Bright Eyes show at the Riviera. Wow.. What a debacle! The first band, Tilly and the Wall, was pretty good, and I must say I was very impressed that they were able to pull off the substitution of a drummer for a tap dancer. Coco Rosie, on the other hand, was horrendous! The band was comprised of a female keyboard player, a guy beatboxing, and a woman "singing" (although singing is too good of a word for her.. she sounded like a cross between an alleycat orgy, a baby wailing, and traditional Indian singing). To top it all off, they performed beneath projected badly drawn-images of x-rated unicorn pile-ups. Times like those make me wish the "Men in Black" memory flashers actually existed.

Finally (and not a moment too soon), Conor Oberst and his Bright Eyes took the stage. He's releasing 2 albums simultaneously on Jan. 25th, however his current tour is only promoting the more "country" of the two albums. When I heard this, I immediately assumed they would play a good mix of both old and new. However, I was way wrong. Between Edna and I, we only recognized one song out of the entire 90 min. set. Don't get me wrong, the new stuff is good, and I would recommend to nearly anyone to buy their new albums, but I couldn't help feeling ripped off upon leaving the venue. I wasn't alone either.. between songs, one could hear booing and the names of his earlier hits being dropped. I am of the school that believes that a band must be thoroughly established before playing concerts consisting of nearly all new material... for instance, if U2 were to play a concert and play all their new stuff before a record were released, I'd be so happy to be amongst the privileged few to hear it first. However, Conor, you are no U2 - and I want my $23 back.