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Angst-ridden Oberst rides hype


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POSTED: Friday, October 03, 2008

Conor Oberst is hot, as well as being too cool to talk to the likes of us. If you're one of those oh-so-tragic teens in tight jeans and obscure indie-label T-shirts, with a swath of dark hair hiding one side of your pouty, pale face, then you certainly know who Conor Oberst is, and you likely absorb the massive hype about this young lad from Nebraska being the “;next Bob Dylan”; or “;the boy genius of American music”; or “;that whiny kid who cries all the time,”; as one YouTuber puts it.

               

     

 

 

CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND

        Those under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Aw, mom!

       

Place: Pipeline Cafe

       

Time: 8 p.m. Tuesday

       

Tickets: $28 and $55

       

Call : (877) 750-4400 or visit www.bampproject.com

       

       

Likely downloaded via free Wi-Fi whilst sipping latte at Starbucks, the songs you have probably are the very early recordings of Oberst weeping over his strummy guitar at the age of 13, tunes which he later - and nervily - claimed as an independent album.

You know that this pre-adolescent was on the road by 14, apparently playing in more bands than most career musicians, although it seems like it was pretty much the same band with multiple name changes. The one that stuck longest was Bright Eyes, and the current incarnation is Mystic Valley Band, although, honestly, all of these iterations are really just Conor Oberst and the Available Pick-Ups.

You emo-demograpics are quite aware that Oberst's music is prolific and cascading and never quite seems finished or polished, leaning toward the Leonard Cohen spectrum of lyrical gush, which passes for sensitivity these days. Even so, Oberst is highly regarded by crack songwriters like Bruce Springsteen, another boy wonder in his youth.

Seriously, Oberst is only in his late 20s, and despite having toured most of his life and skipping school, his songs have a surfeit of twee sensitivity and hyper-awareness. He's the quiet dude who stole your girlfriend because he listened intently to her while she babbled.

He does drink beer, though. That much we learned from Web surfing. Not very insightful, but any emo-licious youngster distraught at the crushing insensitivity of the hurtling universe who doesn't retreat to alcohol would surely be a poser, yes?

You kids today - get off my lawn! And get on down to the Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band show, presented by BAMP Project.

As for the rest of us, it's likely going to be a good show, albeit with songs we've never heard before, about emotions we gladly discarded years ago.