Conor Oberst: Fine-tuned poetic melancholy

Concert review |

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band kicked off their international tour with what might have been a perfect concert Wednesday at Neumo's on Capitol Hill.

Sweat dripped and eyeglasses slid off faces in the unbelievably hot sold-out venue, but the music sounded fantastic.

It was shimmering Americana forcefully delivered by a crack band (Taylor Hollingsworth, guitar; Nik Freitas, guitar; Macey Taylor, bass; Nate Walcott, keys; Jason Boesel, drums) playing to the 28-year-old Nebraskan singer-songwriter (and heartthrob) Oberst's acoustic guitar, soothing/seething/shouting tenor and uniformly poetic lyrics.

He began the concert singing, "there's nothing that the road cannot heal, washed beneath the blacktop, gone beneath my wheels." The song "Moab" was appealing right away: bouncy beat, warm tightly-written verses and a rock-out chorus with dramatic down-strums. That was about 60 percent of the set, but there were also solo ballads, foot-stomping barnburners and a screamy psychedelic dirge.

Oberst sang about orange groves and blazing rockets on soft 'n' slow radio hit "Cape Canaveral," and on "Milk Thistle," name-checked spotted owls. On that song, he commented on the news: "Newspaper, newspaper [... ] Just let me have my coffee before you take away the day." That lasting sadness is part of Oberst's America, as is abundant paranoia (he sang, "they got my house surrounded," and, "every hallway has a camera").

The concert was all songs off "Conor Oberst," the album he recorded in a Mexican mountain villa with the Mystic Valley Band, out Tuesday. You can stream it for free at www.conoroberst.com/album.

Oberst is a handsome man and personal, intense lyricist with die-hard fans — "We love you Conor!" shouts abounded — and he courted them well, if professionally. Between songs, he autographed albums handed from the audience, but his banter was rote and spare. The night was all about the music, all about sound.

And the sound must be noted. Oberst brought sound operator Jacob Feinberg on tour, he and his digital mixing board replacing the house system at Neumo's. Turning knobs the whole time, he controlled each member of the sextet's output individually and mixed by ear. "Can I get a little more," Oberst began, about to ask for a change in the levels. "Oh, wait, I think you already got it." Every instrument sounded distinct, the sound was full and powerful and there was no need for earplugs. Feinberg was on his game.

Indie-rock stars Britt Daniel (Spoon) and David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) were in the house, loving the music as much as the audience, which stayed quiet through the songs and went crazy between.

Dri opened with sleepy, downtown R&B.

Andrew Matson: 206-464-2153 or amatson@seattletimes.com