Conor Oberst brings his best to the Cradle

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band played a phenomenal set Saturday night at the Cat's Cradle.

Oberst and the five members of the Mystic Valley Band played an amazing set to the sold out Cradle crowd, mostly from his newly released self-titled solo album. The energetic, passionate set kept the crowd engaged, some of which were from as far away as Buffalo.

Highlights of the set included the foot-stomping tune "NYC - Gone, Gone," "Souled Out!!!," a blues standard "Corrina, Corrina" and "Cape Canaveral." Mystic Valley guitarists Nik Freitas and Taylor Hollingsworth even got a chance to take the lead on a song each. Hollingsworth belted out "Central City" from his album Bad Little Kitty while Freitas sang the song "Sun Down" from his recent album aptly titled, Sun Down.

The band was tight and sounded amazing all night. Kudos are definitely due to the band's front-of-house sound engineer who mixed the best sounding show I've heard at the Cradle.

Local buzz band I Was Totally Destroying It was the first of two openers Saturday night. The band played a raucous set of pop tunes which was okay, but not phenomenal. They have a lot of energy and potential. I'd like to hear what they sound like in a few years.

Oklahoma band Evangelicals was the second opener of the night. These guys have built quite a buzz but there set was disappointing. Frontman Josh Jones' vocals were so drenched with reverb and echo that it was just irritating. There may have been some good songs under the wall of noise, but it was hard to tell.

Conor ruled the night, though, proving that maybe he doesn't need to use the Bright Eyes name anymore — as a solo act he's just as good or better.

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Check out Oberst's brand new video for "Souled Out!!!" below.



Conor Oberst - "Danny Callahan" (mp3)
Nik Freitas - "Sun Down" (mp3)