Bright Eyes Dingwalls Camden Tues night
Blimey, these temperamental creative types, dontcha just love 'em? It was about three-quarters through what hitherto had been a perfectly fine set that the wheels threatened to come right off. With something of a track record as a moody, knife-edge performer, Conor Oberst transformed from compelling, combative troubadour ("I can't play guitar good enough to be a wanker") to petulant arse before our eyes. For the best part of ten minutes the show hung in the balance.
Up to that point, as said, things were going fine. A constantly evolving band of up to 12 players (comprising support acts Azure Ray & The Good Life, plus Mike 'If it's got strings I'll pluck it' Mogis & others) delivered up the first eight songs from Year's Best contender Lifted, or.. and the odd old favourite (Calendar hung itself). Ranking about 7th in this blog's order of favouritism on 'Lifted', Lover I don't have to love stood out as the most galvanising moment; the more delicate bloom of blog fave Nothing gets crossed out fared a bit less well. The rousing waltz of False advertising couldn't really fail, with all hands on deck sawing, hitting, blowing or squeezing anything they could get their hands on. Excellento.
So then Conor meanders across to the keyboard, has a drink and a quick drag, moans about the equipment and kicks off another number. Calls a halt a minute in. The band goes again. Halt! And again. Walks up to the centre mic and spits at it (and anyone close by). Uniquely impressed by his rock'n'roll outrageousness, repeats said action. The crowd's indulgence of all this was exceeded only by that of the members of the band (tho' Mogis made his excuses and left, never to return). Fixating for some reason on Maria Taylor (drums, vocals), Oberst then stood pointedly in front of her while bashing out the chords to 'Let's all shit ourselves'. Taylor sought refuge in the uncompicated kicking beat that song demanded of her, flicking up the odd glance to see if he'd gone away yet. Finally, finally the boy got back round to the business in hand, he and the band plucking victory from the jaws of defeat with that epic twanging stomper. Phew, as they say...
Anyone up for Round Two, ULU on Dec 9? See you there...

For those wondering where next for Jeff Tweedy/Wilco one answer would seem to be Loose Fur: 'A combination of folk, pop, rock and free riffage, this is O'Rourke, Kotche, and Tweedy, all rolled together in one enormous bomber,' says label Drag City of this combo featuring YankeeHF producer Jim O, and Wilco's Glenn K and Jeff T. Look for Loose Fur in early '03, apparently...

And speaking of Glenn Kotche, he percussed on Wonder wonder, the rather lovely most recent album from Edith Frost. She's presently over in Europe tho' sadly the UK appears not to be on her itinerary. What's she sound like? Well, a combination of two women who will be playing London the first week of December, Caitlin Cary and Nina Nastasia gets you pretty damn close. Now if only an impromptu meeting could be engineered...