Conor Oberst
by: Mary Welch
Last week Friday, I had the pleasure of seeing Conor Oberst and his band live. Their genre is very “folk,” which is not my favourite, but Conor’s voice is captivating and some on his older songs have a lot of personal meaning. He is currently touring with the band The Felice Brothers, and again, although their music style isn’t my first choice, they are an exceptional group of musicians. The violinist is especially one very talented member and I feel the band would not be the same without one of them.
Something that ran through my head a few times throughout the night was, “I am so honored to be at this show right now.” I was on the verge of a horrible cold and would have loved to be at home in bed, but I, nonetheless would have still chose to be there because of how great of a show it was. Something that I also really loved was the intimacy between Conor and the audience. I could hear his foot tapping on the stage floor for a song or two. Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised by the crowd’s energy, and especially by a few enthusiastic fans that knew every word to every song.
Without his band, Conor played my two favourite songs, “First Day of My Life” and “Lua” with opening musician Phoebe Bridgers. It was absolutely beautiful and such a surreal experience. They also played “Too Late to Fixate,” which is a song about the struggle of sleep that I can relate to a bit too much. It was definitely a memorable concert and I can cross it off my bucket list. I really recommend branching out with your music taste and giving Conor Oberst a chance because you might just fall in love with his haunting voice like I have. His most current album, Salutations, consists of full-band versions of the same songs on Ruminations (2016) along with a few new ones.
Check out my review of of "Ruminations" and "Salutations" HERE.