Conor Oberst with Larkin Poe and High Up at the Barrymore, Madison, 10/16/15

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Christine Fink of High Up
Until recently, Conor Oberst was on a strange split tour, playing solo dates (supported at various times by the Felice Brothers and Larkin Poe) interspersed with Desaparecidos shows. Unfortunately, he was forced to cancel the remainder of both tours after a hospitalization for anxiety, exhaustion, and laryngitis. Hopefully he feels better soon. He was talking about a persistent cold during this Madison show.

Jacob and I drove to Madison to see the show with my brother and various friends I've met at previous shows. We left after noon, and got stuck in I-94 construction traffic, so we showed up right as the doors opened. The Barrymore is a converted movie theatre with turquoise paint on the floor and twinkle lights in the ceiling (Conor was a big fan of the twinkle lights -- "That is my favorite thing I've ever seen, maybe"). The sound was great. There was no railing in front of the stage, and they had reusable beer cups you could bring back to get a discount. Overall, the venue was great.

Larkin Poe. Rebecca (left) and Megan (right)
High Up played first. It's an "indie soul" band fronted by Orenda Fink's sister, Christine. It's very vocally driven, and features a small horn section (Orenda plays the trumpet). I thought Christine had a lot of talent and made a great frontman -- I could hardly stop watching her. The highlight was their cover of Bright Eyes' "Make a Plan to Love Me", which I've always loved. It's not the kind of music I would listen to a recording of, but I enjoyed the show.

Larkin Poe was up next. It's another sister act, Rebecca and Megan Lovell. I saw them play with Conor in Central Park when I was in New York City last summer, and I was glad to see them perform their own material. Rebecca plays electric guitar, and Megan plays slide guitar. It was a huge change, stylistically, from High Up (and from Conor). Their first 3 songs rocked hard enough that I was immediately convinced I should buy their music. There was some levity in their set. Some musicians are really serious on stage, and
Megan knelt right in front of me for one solo.
some are clearly having fun; Larkin Poe is clearly in the second category. I got a kick out of their playing "Black Betty" toward the beginning of their set, and "Bang Bang" toward the end.

Larkin Poe did a fantastic job of supporting Conor, and I think I preferred them to both the Felice Brothers and Dawes as a backing band. They mostly played guitars, but Rebecca also took Mike Mogis' habitual mandolin parts, and that was wonderful. Nate Walcott was there, and played keyboards and trumpet. It pretty much always makes my night. Orenda Fink and her High Up bandmate, whose name I think is Jason Biggers, played additional horns. Miwi La Lupa was on bass, like he was on the Tulsa leg of the tour, and last summer in NYC.

Conor was in a really chatty and generally good mood. He started with the first three songs of Upside Down Mountain, like he has been all tour long, but the setlist was fairly different than I've seen on other legs the tour. I loved hearing Classic Cars, which apart from "Make a Plan to Love Me", is one of my favorites off of Cassadaga. Cape Canaveral is easily my favorite from his eponymous record, but I Don't Want to Die (in a Hospital) is a close second, and he indulged me during the encore. I was surprised to hear two songs from The People's Key, but loved hearing Shell Games with Conor at the piano, if only because it was so unexpected. Hearing both Lover I Don't Have to Love and Laura Laurent in the same concert was

delightful, and I don't think I'd ever heard Laura live before. It was perfectly debauched and rambly.

Maybe the best thing about the set was getting to hear the new song, Napalm. I loved it, and I can't wait to hear a recorded version. The thing that sticks out in my memory was an allusion to Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, which has been one of my favorite books since I was about 15. He calls himself Billy Pilgrim, and invokes the firebombing of Dresden. Really looking forward to whenever that gets released.

Solid sets from everyone. Here's my video of "Cape Canaveral", with Rebecca Lovell rocking the mandolin, and the setlist. And here's hoping Conor feels better soon.






Setlist:
Time Forgot
Zigzagging Toward the Light
Hundreds of Ways
Classic Cars
We Are Nowhere (and It's Now)
Cape Canaveral
Artifact #1
Enola Gay
Napalm
Double Life
Danny Callahan
Shell Games
If the Brakeman Turns My Way
Governor's Ball
Laura Laurent
Ladder Song
__
Lover I Don't Have to Love
Landlocked Blues
I Don't Want to Die (in a Hospital)

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