I really only started listening to Bright Eyes when I'm Wide Awake It's Morning came out. I was aware of their/his existence, but didn't really care until i was dating someone who was excited about it so I said okay, I'll go see him/them at Town Hall with you 2 years ago, where I heard much of IWAIM for the first time. I like singer-songwriters. I like Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, The Mountain Goats, Leonard Cohen (not as much as the first three.) I like Phil Ochs. As many of you know, I especially especially like Elliott Smith. so duh, I like Connor Oberst. He's great. He's young and sincere so sometimes uncomfortable for such reasons, sometimes annoying, but really good, and I hope he gets better. But I maintain that "At The Bottom of Everything"is a great song, and I know at least 3 specific people on my f'list are with me on that. probably others as well.

So anyway, last Friday I went to the last night of Bright Eye's week long residency at Town Hall and it was fucking awesome. It was a completely fun, exciting night. And I cried. During not one, but two different songs--"Limetree" and the very last song of the evening, "Road To Joy". I remember hearing "Road to Joy" for the first time back at that first Town Hall show with MNBFBW and being surprised at how moved I was by it. I was again, this time, feeling like a huge dork when my eyes welled upon upon Connor's climactic" Let's fuck it up, girls/make some noise" while Janet Weiss is hitting the fuck out of her drum kit and Gillian Welch and a million other people are on stage banging on things and whatnot. It was a great show.



Then tonight I saw the Shondes at Arlene's Grocery, which was similar in that they put on a great, emotional, sincere rock show. On a bit of a lower budget, but similarly epic in feel. You can see a recent interview and live clip of them playing "Don't Look Down" on this episode of Lo-fi St. Louis.