Conor Oberst and the Felice Brothers at Cain's Ballroom, Tulsa, 3-12-17

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My favorite venue on a nice day
There's nothing like being in my favorite venue, in the heart of my hometown. I had fun seeing trying to see the venue through new eyes: the giant sepia portraits of country and western stars, the spring-loaded wooden dancefloor, the disco ball and neon star in the ceiling, and the faded awning above the stage make the place feel old and kind of hokey, but in the best possible way. Cain's has been my favorite thing about my hometown for about half my life at this point. So many of my favorite Tulsa memories happened there.

Ian Felice during the Felice Brothers set
I visited the Gypsy coffee shop on my way to the venue and waited outside on a nice, sunny day. My friends arrived from their trip from Kansas City all the way out to Memphis and back, and we had a nice time waiting for the show. I appreciated the warmer spring weather, after leaving frigid Minnesota.

Conor and the Felices played wonderful sets. This was my Life in the Dark. It's a weird band to catch live -- the bassist (Xmas) and lead guitarist/singer (Ian) have pretty surly on-stage personas. Ian stands with his feet crossed a lot of the time, and is pretty much all business. Meanwhile, the fiddler (Farley) and keyboardist/accordionist (James) just radiate joy on stage. The songs are an interesting mix of upbeat and slow, with some traditional instrumental songs sometimes thrown in. Ian's guitar work is sometimes my favorite thing.
third night in a week to catch the Felices, and by this time, I had completely fallen in love with their record

Conor's set was a lot like the two previous nights. He had high energy and the band was really fun to watch. They told a story about having been down the street to the Guthrie Museum (I just went, myself, when I was home for Thanksgiving). There, they saw a poem Woody penned about the time he lived in an apartment complex in New York City owned by Donald Trump's father. He was as animated as you might expect talking about this point. And many months later, in September, he plugged the Guthrie Museum again to audiences in Milwaukee and Chicago, which I really enjoyed hearing, on the road.

Setlist viewed from the pit
There were some really annoying fans in the row behind us who were behaving inappropriately, so that was distracting, but otherwise, I had a blast at this show. Cain's had removed the barrier for this one, which was a first for me at that venue.

They ended with "A Little Uncanny" and came back out for a three song encore, "No One Is Gonna Change" (or whatever the song is called), "Train Underwater", and "Napalm". On previous tours, "Road to Joy" and "Roosevelt Room" have been among my favorite

explosive, end-of-the-set songs. "Napalm" is taking its place near the top of that list. The song is absolutely great live.



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