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Epitaph Records -- Millencolin

The venue was a place called So What!, I've seen quite a few shows there before and it's probably my favourite venue. As a matter of fact, I've been told it's one of Europe's finest-sounding venues. The stage is in the basement of the club, and the basement fits 200-300 people. Great stuff. On to the show.

We arrived early, about an hour before Azure Ray took the stage, which bought us the time to buy a few beers. I think I would've hated Azure Ray if it wasn't for said beers. They consisted of a couple of girls playing guitar, bass, keyboards and taking turns singing. It was quite boring - zero crowd interaction, zero crowd reaction, and the girls looked scared and nervous. A few of them were quite cute, though. The music was... lo-fi pop music with a drum machine. Like I said, quite boring.

The Good Life used VERY short time to take stage. They are a... (categorizing music is not one of my strongest abilities) synth/keyboard-based pop/rock band. Well, that's my take anyway. Their music was actually quite entertaining, WAY better live than on record, since I really can't stand most electronic music. Quite entertaining, but the Good Life didn't have any crowd interaction either, and the crowd didn't bother listening, except for two drunk, old guys hanging out on the front row half screaming half singing out of key with the few Good Life songs they knew. Entertaining, but nothing memorable, but I did enjoy two or three of their songs.

I got another beer, and started hoping Conor Oberst and his Bright Eyes would take the stage soon. And they did. I assume you've all heard (or at least heard of) Bright Eyes by now - Conor Oberst, the 22-year old prodigy and his close-and-personal singer/songwriter style. The latest album, "Lifted or the story is in the soil; keep your ear to the ground", has yet to get a bad review (and I've read quite a lot of them).

Intermission. For those of you who are expecting a lengthy review of Bright Eyes' set, I must disappoint you. I've only heard "Lifted" and loved it, that's why I went to this show. Other than the few songs they played off this album, I have no clue what I was hearing, all I knew was that I loved it. So there.

They opened with a song I'd never heard before, which was quite good actually. I'd recite some of the lyrics if I remembered them, but I don't. Next up was "False Advertising", which is a damn fine song, and it sounded great, even more so than on the album. They proceeded to play a mix of old and new songs, and among them were "Nothing Gets Crossed Out", "You Will You Will You Will You Will You?", and the album closer "Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love And Be Loved)" the final song (Conor introduced it by saying "This song's called 'Don't shit yourself kid, it's not worth it', and it's the most important song you'll ever hear, so listen up", which about sums up the way he seems to feel about his own music.)

Perfect sound, perfect musicianship, (I counted 10 people on stage at the most) - and Conor's almost-pretentious yet damn charismatic stage presense made this show an unforgettable experience. The only downsides to the night was 1) the price of beer (44 NKR which equals about $5) 2) Azure Ray and 3) Bright Eyes not doing an encore even though 200 people were cheering "Oberst, Oberst, Oberst..."


Go see this kid and his band... you won't regret it.






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    Posted by AnaMorph0sIs on 2003-03-15 07:18:48
    My Score:

    I went to this one as well, probably the second best show I saw at So What! last year (Pretty Girls Make Graves and JR Ewing kicked my butt back in August). Azure Ray was quite ambient and boring, as you pointed out, I watched their entire set though, one of the girls on stage was friggin' cute. Good Life was really good, but their set was a bit short, and they seemed really tired. Same with Bright Eyes and Conor, the set was good, they played great, but there was no expression of playing-joy "up" there. I guess you can't expect that either, when you play a show at a new place every night.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 27, 2002 at 5:42 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    i posted the post below... i wasn't done yet, but it's dark in here and my keyboard is fucked up... yea they all should get together and argue out just who is the most overrated band of the year

    to the guy who saw fishbone, review that fucking show cause i wanna read about it

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 27, 2002 at 5:41 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    i think we should have a competition between all the people who post messages under each show or cd review proclaiming "THEY'RE THEY MOST FUCKING OVERRATED BAND"

    Posted by StabbingGoldfish on 2002-11-27 06:00:55
    My Score:

    I give credit to the reviewer, I couldn't form a sentance in Norwegian and he wrote a whole review in our language. So fuck bashing him. Anyways, I love bright eyes, and seeing them live in Philly was amazing.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 3:16 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Bright Eyes = most over-fucking-rated band, EVER

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 1:53 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    I'm gonna have to say Conor Oberst is fucking talented and your a fucking dick

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 12:57 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Conor owns you all.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 12:57 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    I saw bright eyes a few months ago in philly. I love him, and think he's insanely ingenious, however, the show fucking sucked. Except for "something vague" they did that well...but the live versions of the songs on lifted get TOO fucking pretentious.

    thank you all.

    goodnight

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 12:53 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    conor oberst isn't that talented. everyone seems to think so though.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 11:44 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    This show sounds awesome...

    too bad the reviewer didn't seem to know his ass from a hole in the wall...

    The Good Life and Bright Eyes are both fantastic bands in their own right...I would have loved to have seen this...

    Jim

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 11:22 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    only worthwhile band on this bill scott? granted, the good life was the best band on it, but have you seen azure ray? check out the song "november." its amazing. i know you dont like bright eyes... but you should. ha. i would have killed to see this show. well, maybe not killed.

    -travis

    Posted by eyeball_kid on 2002-11-26 10:44:21
    My Score:

    Bright Eyes blew the other two bands off the stage when I saw 'im in Manchester. Anyway, I think I will review the Fishbone show I saw in London cos it was the best I have ever seen in a small club. I was going to review the Bosstones/Snuff/Consumed show but it never materialised. Going to see the Vandals on Monday but I doubt anyone would give a monkey's about that.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 7:56 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    listen to Azure Ray's song "I will do these things" and tell me they don't kill you with sadness and beauty. They are really good songwriters.

    I'm glad some of them are cute though, but after a couple beers you've fucked your sister so maybe there really dogs....guess Minus one for Azure ray.

    wyzo

    Posted by Melvyl on 2002-11-26 05:19:03
    My Score:

    btw, talking about non-us reviews, i'm gonna review the heart attack tour.

    Posted by Melvyl on 2002-11-26 05:18:21
    My Score:

    yeah, non-us reviews are cool because they seem a bit more exclusive, i mean, this show is not really a good example, but like the spanish bad religion show where they played in a really small club and the millencolin anniversary with brett on stage.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 1:11 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    i saw bright eyes with the good life back in may and i must say, the good life came close to stealing the show. had they played for as long as bright eyes they probably would have. i saw bright eyes again in september and it almost bored me to tears. i can't stand the new album, and the live show definitely reminded me of that. everything before "lifted" is great, especially "fevers and mirrors", but i just can't take "lifted".

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 12:38 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Bright Eyes isn't worthy hahaha you are an idiot. Bright Eyes is fucking amazing.

    Posted by maverick on 2002-11-26 00:04:07
    My Score:

    This score is for the Good Life. They are the only worthwhile band on this bill.

    Good job on the review, though. We need more non-US contributors!

    -Scott

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