Six weeks ago, die-hard Bright Eyes fans began flocking to his Web Site in order to purchase pre-sale tickets for Saturday night’s show through a label-contracted broker called Ravenhouse Ltd. out of Los Angeles.
Last week, panicked fans began to sweat the fact that their tickets had not arrived for Saturday’s show.
Turning to the Internet for information on Ravenhouse, distraught fans found no contact information, not even on their conformation numbers and receipts.
Thursday brought another wave of distress, as Bright Eyes message boards and blogs ignited with a blaze of scandalous Ravenhouse reviews from consumers who had bought tickets for previous shows and never received them.
The chaos that ensued on Friday and Saturday night was frustrating and incredibly pointless.
To make a long story short, the Bright Eyes label, Saddle Creek, along with many other bands such as Modest Mouse and The Black Heart Procession had contracted Ravenhouse Ltd. to handle all of their fan club pre-sales.
The mistake proved to be monumental. Saturday rolled around and no one had tickets, despite being told that they would be Fed-Exed by Friday.
Four o’clock found a handful of enraged fans outside of will call, waiting to argue their sad case.
Six o’clock found will call open and the promise of a “master list” with all of the Ravenhouse names on it.
Oh, and did I mention there were now around 20 feisty patrons?
Seven o’clock: doors heartbreakingly opened before a long line of ticketless twenty-somethings.
Eight o’clock: the concert began as “the list” appeared with 16 names on it.
There were nearly 100 Ravenhouse purchasers in line.
Just when things looked like they couldn’t get any bleaker, the final list arrived.
Thank goodness as the mob was beginning to get hostile.
By hostile, I mean passing around the Ravenhouse phone number and flooding their circuit board with hundreds of livid messages.
By hostile, I mean calling Tom Martino, a.k.a. the Troubleshooter, to do an exclusive on the management at Ravenhouse.
A few very upset fans even called their credit card companies to report Ravenhouse for fraud.
So what’s the point of telling you all this?
All the mental anguish and cursing at the heavens was worth it just to see Conor Oberst and his band Bright Eyes.
Dubbed “rock’s boy genius” by many music industry greats, Oberst has become a staple in modern indie music.
After a busy 2005, with the simultaneous release of the sister albums Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, Oberst slipped from the radar for most of 2006.
Save for a handful of performances and the release of Noisefloor, a collection of audio odds and ends from 1998-2005, the Bright Eyes gang was locked away in various studios across the country.
The product of this exile? Cassadega. While the CD has been receiving mixed reviews from some notable music publications, overall the record has been very well received.
Breaking away from the youthful alcoholic ramblings of in past albums, Oberst’s newest work exudes a newfound refinement and maturity for Bright Eyes.
The songs possess the signature Bright Eyes commentary on the current world at large, especially the pitfalls of the Bush administration, but handle these issues in a subtler manner than found on I’m Wide Awake, It’ Morning.
The addition of guitarist Jake Bellows (Neva Dinova) and Nate Walcott (trumpet/keyboardist) lent an entirely new aesthetic to the band.
The audience at Saturday’s show warmly and whole-heartedly embraced this new sound.
A majority of the two hour set came from Cassadega except for a few classics like “First Day of My Life” and “On a String.”
While normally audiences tend to like to hear more old material, it seemed completely fitting that the newest release be the main focus as it represents an entirely new era for Bright Eyes.
This transition was also evident in the matching white suits of the 12-piece band.
The elaborate combinations of cellos, flutes, trumpets, guitars, pianos, percussion and violins brought to life the cinematic arrangements that are the hallmark of Cassadega.
Oberst’s unique voice and narrative lyricism commanded the audience and band alike.
Oberst proved to be an instrumentally and lyrically enlightened conductor, leading his band through song after song of exponentially different styles of music.
Some songs resounded with country swagger while others hauntingly resonated like an old 45 in your grandmother’s living room.
As for performance, Bright Eyes delivered an incredible show.
Oberst’s band was enthusiastic without being distracting, while he himself seemed playful and almost giddy to be performing.
This relieved many fans as Oberst has been known to stumble into shows slurring words, and missing chords.
Thankfully, this was not one of those shows.
Oberst was so amiable that after hearing that some kids in the audience were missing their proms for the show, he proceeded to tell a story about his prom and then play a waltz for the audience to dance to.
Hundreds of couples swirled up and down the aisles while others simply swayed dreamily in their seats.
Perhaps the most captivating portion of the entire show was the visuals.
Instead of an ordinary dull backdrop, a giant projector displayed videos of beautiful images.
Done as if it were a video, the images were of ordinary things that, when looked at closely, are beautiful, like colored markers, Etch-a-Sketch drawings and dollar bills.
While the work appeared to be a video, it was actually the live work of a close friend and Omaha-based artist Joey Lynch that was creating all of the imagery via overhead projector from the lighting booth.
Overall, the concert was a truly amazing experience.
The Buell Theater allowed for an intimate, yet majestic atmosphere without the show feelings like a corny production piece.
Venues and performances rarely complement each other as well as they did at Saturday’s show.
So even though getting the concert tickets and actually entering the show was a complete debacle, for Bright Eyes, it was worth it.
The show was a worthy experience and a great investment.
