Conor Oberst with Dawes at First Ave, Minneapolis, 6/2/2014

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The second night was, in many ways, better than the first. It lacked the two pre-show band-sightings of the day before. (One in which Conor reluctantly said "Hi, guys" to the group of us that had assembled four hours early, while avoiding eye contact and walking to the side entrance, and the other involving loading the whole band into a black SUV, while an empty champagne bottle rolled out onto the pavement.)

Otherwise, I liked it a lot better.

Dawes' performance on the second night was a lot better. Nothing was different about their musicianship, but the setlist they chose was high energy, set off their talents, and gave off much less of an Eagles-wannabe impression. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Conor's setlist was also better, in my opinion. He said, early in the show, that they'd try to mix it up, since so many people would attend both shows. They started the same way, with "Time Forgot" and "Zigzagging Toward the Light" (just like the record), but there were some new additions from Upside Down Mountain and some different cuts off of older Bright Eyes records. I was psyched to hear "Sausalito", one of my favorite songs from Conor's solo work. The title track (or, the track that contains the title), "Lonely at the Top" was nice to hear -- it felt like something that needed to happen, to complete the experience for this tour. "Enola Gay" was fun. I wish Conor would stop apologizing for "Artifact #1", which was considerably stripped down for the live performance but still brilliant. He apologized again just before "Poison Oak" -- "Sorry for all the sad songs - I wish we had more party jams to play for you. I don't have a lot of those." Very funny, Conor. Party jams.



"Firewall" displaced "Ladder Song" as the lone representative of 2011's People's Key. "Ladder Song" is my favorite cut from that record, but I was surprisingly okay with the change. Partially that's because you can never get rid of the teenage girls screaming the lyrics off-key when he does quiet songs. But it's also because Dawes did a kind of fantastic job with it, and the whole thing turned out kind of creepy, in the rockingest way possible.

There was nothing from Digital Ash in a Digital Urn the second night, which was regrettable. But the additions of "Method Acting" and "Something Vague" were more than fair trades. And he did solo performances of "Lua" (to close the show) and "First Day of My Life" (to open the encore). I was surprised, because those two songs seem to fill the same needs in the show: quiet songs from I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning that the audience really connects with...and that contrarian Conor probably doesn't want to play that often.
During "Something Vague" when the Dawes drummer took the second verse.

He did forget the lyrics twice (lucky I was front and center, huh?). Once, in the second line of "Desert Island Questionnaire" and once during "Lua", when he accidentally started with the second verse. "Wait. Shit. That's not how it starts. How does it go?"

"Another Travelin' Song" and "Roosevelt Room" would be pretty hard to beat as a closing pair, so I understood their repeating them in the encore. Dawes does really well with "Roosevelt Room", but
hearing it live still gives me flashbacks to MVB.

All things considered, I enjoyed the two-night stand quite a bit, and found myself longing to jump in the car to Omaha for the next one. This tour has a feel to it different than any of the previous shows on any tour I've been to, and if you're a fan of Conor Oberst (any Conor, from any era), I think you should see it. First, the record marks a return to the more conversational song-writing style that I've been missing since Cassadaga, or even before. The Mystic Valley Band never played Bright Eyes, and Conor's last solo tour had a chill, singer-songwriter vibe altogether different than this. He seems to be breaking free of the constraints that kept him from playing parts of his catalog with various bands (which may be sad -- maybe it's just because Bright Eyes and MVB are both defunct). The result is that he can put together a hell of a setlist from a catalog that spans half his life (and, for that matter, half of mine).

Toward the end of the set.
Desaparecidos is up next. I couldn't be more excited for that, but I'm glad I got to see this incarnation first.



Setlist:
Time Forgot
Zigzagging Toward the Light
We Are Nowhere, and It's Now
Sausalito
Enola Gay
Old Soul Song (for the New World Order)
Lonely at the Top
Method Acting
Artifact #1
Bowl of Oranges
You Are Your Mother's Child
Something Vague
Get-Well-Cards
Firewall
Desert Island Questionnaire
Poison Oak
I Got the Reason #2
Lua
___

First Day of My Life
Another Travelin' Song
Roosevelt Room
During "First Day of My Life". Cool Simon Joyner and the Fallen Men shirt.

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