Bright Eyes @Town Hall, May 28th

Caught Bright Eyes last night at Town Hall for the 3rd night of their sold out seven night run. I had great 5th row dead center seats from the presale. I loved their show at the Bowery in March, which compelled me to buy these tickets, but tonight I was not so blown away. Maybe it's the superiority of Bowery in terms of size, intimacy and acoustics, the fact that we were seated versus standing...I dunno. I wasn't feeling it as much despite seeing the lovely Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney on drums.

Openers Gillian Welch and David Rawlings did knock me outta my boots, tho. I hadn't heard that much from Gillian aside from her occasional appearance on compilations or her stellar cover of Radiohead's "Black Star," so it was serendipitous that on Saturday I passed by a stoop sale and picked up a used copy of her debut album, Revival, for 33¢. The fact that they opened with the lead track "Orphan Girl" from that cd really made me pleased as punch. The two of them held the crowd in their quiet acoustic way with beautiful, honest music. They finished strong with a rousing cover of Johnny Cash's "Jackson."

The evening was not without its highlights, however. As promised, Conor did have a special guest come on stage, and perhaps he read my mind and saw my Rilo Kiley t-shirt, cos I screamed with the best of them for my girl crush, Jenny Lewis. They played "Melt Your Heart":

Here's a picture of Jenny with her boytoy, Johnathan Rice, who also played a few songs:

David and Gillian also joined Conor on stage for some encores, including a great sounding "Lua" for which Gillian even sang some lines.

Yeah, so back to Conor & Co. I still think he's worthwhile seeing live, but kinda like with Sufjan, I can only listen to him in limited doses. There's only so much of that warbly voice and slight air of douchebaggery that I can take. But who knows what I'm talking about; I have front row seats for tonight!

PS -- Julie1 and I sat in front of Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum, which made Wawa jealous.