Show Review

Corn, beef and the flat land. Until recently, when someone mentioned Omaha, Nebraska, that's probably what came to mind. Perhaps eating a lot of corn and beef and not having very many exciting places to go, is the secret formula that has recently helped Omaha produce one of the most exciting music scenes. An appetizing sampling of Omaha's recent offshoot, has set up a mini residency in the East Village of New York City in one of the city's premier dance clubs and music venues - Webster Hall.

While the crowd waited in anticipation for sets from The Faint and Bright Eyes, Omaha-based rapper Mars Black warmed up the crowd with a taste of old-school hip-hop with an indie edge. While a rapper from Omaha taking the stage in the city that invented the genre in front of a crowd that mainly paid to see rock &roll could be a somewhat daunting task, Black's up-tempo hip hop style, while far from being groundbreaking, provided a decent background for people's early evening drinking festivities.

The Faint, fellow cohorts on Bright Eyes' Saddle Creek record label, took the stage as much of the sold-out Webster Hall crowd began to quickly migrate through the venue that seemingly holds as many rooms as a carnival fun-house. Creating a well of sound through heavy-hitting monster guitar riffs, sultry keyboard sounds and thumping bass, The Faint quickly had the crowd moving and Webster Hall's wrap-around balcony literally shaking. Focusing mostly on songs from their latest album Wet From Birth, The Faint tore through a number of fast-paced, yet undeniably tight and interesting songs including "I Disappear" and "Birth,” as well as touching on some of their older material.

Although much of the crowd was certainly familiar with The Faint's material, it was Bright Eyes that they were there to see. You rarely read or hear a review or article about Conor Oberst without a comparison to Bob Dylan, in terms of his intuitive, story-like and thought provoking songwriting, and now this was the first night of a five-night run in New York City's historic Greenwich village, where Dylan rose from a coffeehouse open-mic regular to legendary status. With the release of two critically acclaimed, and vastly different albums earlier this year, Bright Eyes has quickly gained notoriety and popularity resulting in his face gracing the covers of practically every indie music magazine around.

While Bright Eyes toured earlier in the year in support of the acoustic, folk-based album I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, Oberst is now in the midst of a monstrous world tour in support of the more experimental and electronic tinged Digital Ash In A Digital Urn. Along with The Faint, who Oberst was a member of in their early days, working double-duty as Oberst's backing band, and with Cursive cellist Gretta Cohn lending her hands and talent to the mix, Bright Eyes electrified Webster Hall, cycling through the Digital Ash song catalog and more. While the majority of the songs from the album mostly remained true to the recorded versions, they were certainly played with more of a rock edge, propelled by having two drummers for the entire show. After opening with the first three songs from Digital Ash in order, with "Gold Mine Gutted" standing out as a gem, they strayed from the album's tracklist with "Ship in a Bottle." While tunes from past albums including “Fevers” and “Mirrors and Lifted” were interspersed throughout the set, Digital Ash was clearly the focus, as pretty much every song on the album was played. Songs like "I Believe in Symmetry" and "Hit the Switch" bristled with passion and energy while slower-paced songs such as "Down in a Rabbit Hole" allowed the dynamics of Cohn's cello to come to the forefront.

In front of a captivating light show that occasionally matched the imagery of Obert's lyrics with images of things like a sunset and twinkling stars behind the stage, Oberst drifted between guitar and keyboard from song to song. Oberst's stage presence ranged from humble and shy with him staring at his feet while singing at times, to embracing a full-on rock star persona by standing on top of the stage monitors with his outstretched arm holding the microphone toward the ceiling. While Bright Eyes has certainly already made a huge mark on the music world in 2005, if his recent albums and tours are any indication, it looks like Connor Oberst has the potential to make a big mark in music history, much like his oft-compared predecessor.

Photos courtesy of Courtney Zosia at storyinthesoil.com.