Oberst awesome / Adams not so much
by Kitty589 on 12/15/14Valley Performing Arts Center - NorthridgeValley Performing Arts Center was a highly civilized venue for a small college radio's benefits' concert, like a Disney Concert Hall in the valley. There were assigned seating, eight dollar wine, and a surprising amount of couples in their 60's and 70's. Perhaps they were the parents of the college students, or I'm getting old? Although social media posting was encouraged before and after the show, no picture or video-taking was allowed. Consequently there weren't any teenaged girls watching and documenting the entire event on their tiny iphone screens, instead of viewing the real life humans on stage. Nor were they engaged in taking selfies with their bffs during songs. Heaven! If only all shows in LA were this civilized. David Gray started out the night with new material that I doubt any of the audience had ever heard of. His big English voice and the accompanying cellos reverberated off the walls of the venue though. Finally he obliged us with songs from White Ladder with "Babylon" and "This Year's Love." I felt like I was in an early aught's romcom but that's not a bad thing. I wish he had sung "Please Forgive Me," but maybe he's thoroughly sick of playing it. After a 30 minute intermission, Conor Oberst started his set with "Lenders at the Temple" off his self-titled solo debut. This led to one of my favorite all time songs, "Land-Locked Blues" from what I think is his best Bright Eyes album, I'm Wide Awake It's Morning. Following this was a trio of songs from the new album, Upside Down Mountain. "Hundreds of Ways" and "Zigzagging Toward the Light" rocked, although the new-age jazzy take on "Artifact #1" was unfathomable. "Soul Singer in a Session Band," not one of my favorites, concluded the original material in the set. After this penultimate song, Conor gave an awesome shout out to every member of the band, including Bright Eye's Nate Walcott and his latest producer cohort, Jonathan Wilson. A John Prine cover of "Pretty Good" concluded the set much too early, with Conor sharing vocal duties with his guitar player and Jonathan Wilson. Conor's generosity towards his fellow musicians was on full display as he also gave props to show-mates David Gray and Ryan Adams. I was a little disappointed he didn't sing "Double Life" or some of my other favorite songs, but the Conor canon is so huge, and the set was short, that there was no way all his fans could be sated. After the last 30 minute intermission, the previously calm and quiet group of friends sitting behind me wearing identical Ryan Adams (ironically) ugly Christmas sweaters went nuts. These were Ryan Adams superfans. I was impressed with their name-that-tune ability to discern monikers of songs from one single note, yet annoyed by their constant catcalls, whistles, and sing-a-long which drowned out the actual songs throughout the set. At first, the show was promising, as Ryan growled with eloquent brevity, "We got an hour, let's make it count." He started off with the lead single to his latest album, "Gimme Something Good." My husband sitting next to me, later joked cynically that this is what Ryan's fans have been asking for during the last 10 years of disappointingly generic rock albums after the heights reached during Heartbreaker and Gold. Someone in the audience yelled "Nobody Girl," and Ryan barked back something to the effect of "We already created our setlist, and we're going to play THOSE songs...but uh, thank you for liking that song." It was much snarkier and more douchey sounding in the room. Honestly I only remember the songs that I liked from his setlist, notably, "When the Stars Go Blue," "Dear Chicago," and "Oh My Sweet Carolina." I was swooning into a puddle during "Come Pick Me Up." And that nullified any other douchey comments he made that night. So in conclusion, I look forward to any shows Conor plays in LA in the future. And to whomever organized this benefit concert: GREAT JOB!