Fleet Foxes | 6/28 @ Mission Ballroom

Fleet Foxes played at Mission Ballroom on Tuesday, June 28th on a rescheduled tour for their 2020 album, Shore. Colorado was the second state the band hit on their international tour, with an itinerary that will take them from the West coast to the East coast, and then onwards to the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Belgium, Germany and France. Shore, written in 2018 by Robin Pecknold and recorded between September 2019 and September 2020 (during the Covid-19 pandemic) was nominated for best alternative album during the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.

Fleet Foxes, fresh on the road, played a studio-quality set and an encore with their opening act Tim Bernades. The Shore tour came two years after the album dropped, and Fleet Foxes started their set with three tracks from Shore including “Wading in Waist-High Water”, “Sunblind”, and “Can I Believe You.” They peppered in a few covers, including “Phoenix” by Big Red Machine, and “The Kiss” by unsung 70’s folk-hero Judee Sill. Fleet Foxes also pulled heavily from their self-titled album with instantly recognizable anthems like “Mykonos”, “White Winter Hymnal”, “Blue Ridge Mountains”, and they topped it off with their title-track “Helplessness Blues” off of the 2011 album during the encore.

Coloradans came in droves to Mission Ballroom, and despite the facts that Mission Ballroom is both a relatively new addition to the Denver roster and a stretch further than the Rino district, the floor and the balcony were both packed.

“By the way, how is everyone doing?” asked Robin Pecknold after he, Morgan Henderson and the rest took to the stage. The crowd reared up in response, and Robin responded with “I can already tell this is gonna be a great night.” Someone from the crowd yelled out, “Hey Robin, what are you drinking?” and Robin said without skipping a beat, “throat-soothing honey tea.”

Morgan Henderson notably played percussion, sting and wind instruments throughout the set, slipping quietly to the side after a song and returning with yet another instrument. Henderson played a tambourine, a shaker, a hollow-body upright bass, a flute, and a saxophone.

The thing that makes Mission Ballroom stand-out is the acoustics: not only was the sound guy a talented SOB, the sound was virtually without echo or distortion. And because of the fantastic acoustics, the band could hear the audience just as well as they could hear the music. When Fleet Foxes played toned-down, quieter tracks, a still, tangible quiet settled over the crowd–one could almost feel the vibration in the air.

It goes without saying that live music is a luxury and we’ve all missed out on the opportunity to attend concerts and festivals in recent years. I’ll risk being hyperbolic by saying that Fleet Foxes was one of the best shows I’ve seen in awhile–knowing full well that I really haven’t seen a lot of shows in awhile. In the least, it was one for the books.

Fleet Foxes played eighteen songs during their two-hour set, at elevation no less. The band was somehow able to play a spot-on set while the packed 3,950 person capacity Mission Ballroom felt like an intimate, one-on-one concert experience. It’s easy to see that the band has somehow balanced a casual stage presence with an airtight professionalism, and you can bet that the next time they’re in town we will be there singing the opening “Mykonos” riff loudly and erringly off-key with the best of them.

Written by Kendall Morris

Conor Oberst at Boulder Theater 7/1: Indulgent as a Fourth Gin and Tonic

July 1st saw Conor Oberst’s Salutations tour at Boulder Theater, a set that spanned all ages of Oberst, from his early project Bright Eyes to his most recent solo album Salutations (2017). Known for his tired raconteur-turned-barkeeper vocal style and general self debasement, Oberst has been the recent recipient of criticism and doubt of his merit as an artist. Yet Oberst performed with the musical leverage of any other professional musician; a commanding stage presence and a sound quality nearly parallel to studio level recording. 

Conor Oberst at Boulder Theater, 1 July 2017. Photo: Jocelyn Rockhold

Oberst has defined the subculture of emo-indie music since the early aughts. A veteran musician and prolific song-writer, Oberst has carved his own whiskey sodden hovel in the music world and nestled himself cozily into it. Including the beloved, rose colored and honey-sweet I’m Wide Awake it’s Morning, Oberst captained over fourteen albums with Bright Eyes. Since his contributions with Bright Eyes (1998-2011) the man has gone on to create over seven solo and collaborative albums with indie label Sub Pop Records. 

Conor Oberst at Boulder Theater, 1 July 2017. Photo: Jocelyn Rockhold

The placelessness and angst Oberst’s work feeds off of has become expectable. With narratives of New York winters warmed by cups of wine in stranger’s apartments, wandering aimlessly through the streets of Mexico, or passing time in a local watering hole, all of his projects are instantly recognizable via Oberst’s tone and visage. But while his lyrics speak of a past life in which our loves were great and our sorrows even greater, his performance at the Boulder Theater was refreshingly present. After a suitably fantastic and heart-wrenching set from Oberst’s long time friend, Tim Kasher, the theater settled in for a look at one of its most raw, burdened heroes.

Oberst’s recent work has refashioned the storied sound of American folk. Oberst has transformed the tradition of twangy, downtrodden and universally relatable country-pop lyricism and crafted his own achingly personal inflictions. The setlist included the first track on Ruminations (2016) “Too Late to Fixate” and “Barbary Coast (Later)”, alongside classics such as “Train Under Water” and “Southern State”. The performance filled the theater with their thickly layered instrumentation, and the band (which included members of The Felice Brothers, session drummer Jim Keltner, Gillian Welch, M. Ward, Jim James and Maria Taylor) had a palpable chemistry, considering their artistic stature, and that they’ve contributed to various Oberst projects. 

Conor Oberst is as indulgent as a fourth gin and tonic, and that is exactly why we love him; sardonic and in the vein of Father John Misty’s addled distaste for all things modern and ‘of the self’ and ‘of the world’. Oberst is a figure we love to love nearly as much as we love to write him off as ‘just a sad-sack guy’, as he embodies all the moody and morose aspects of our most ungrateful, hedonistic and all-around selfish selves. But that is exactly why we’ve loved him, even if ‘it’s complicated.’

Conor Oberst switching out his guitars at Boulder Theater, 1 July 2017. Photo: Jocelyn Rockhold

For all his faults, faces and personas, his contributions are seminal to music history as a whole. Elliott Smith, Bright Eyes and the like are defined by their lyrical vulnerability and the brittle reality of addictions, breakups, and other popular neuroses of the 21st century. Their work is honest, at times ugly, at times downright painful, but always honest. Time shows that people will connect most with unbridled honesty. For that reason, Oberst and Kasher are still standing, living long past the era when I’m Wide Awake it’s Morning or Cursive’s (Kasher) Domestica was nested in your six-disk spinner. In an age where we all curate our identities to the most minute degree, and social media is all smiles everything, one can make the argument that Oberst is still all the more relevant, and his persona is not necessarily a tool to use, but a construction of his artistic bravery. 

His weary intonations and general, unabashed and drunken self-effacement are at times to swallow, dripping all their immoral humors:

“My wife takes a vacation/ One she can't afford/ I go fishin' the alleys/ For someone to escort/ No, I don't mind the money/ It beats betting on sports/ And though it might get expensive/ It's cheaper than divorce.” 

But we’re fucked if we deny that admitting your trespasses isn’t the first step. Now, you may be thinking that Oberst has been at it for a little while too long here, hitting the wall of his own self, continuing the legacy of tortured male artists such as the late poet John Berryman (The Dream Songs). And you’re not wrong either. But for all he is, he is a talented musician, and his performance at the Boulder Theater alongside Tim Kasher (Cursive, The Good Life) and others proved him so. 

Conor Oberst at Boulder Theater, 1 July 2017. Photo: Jocelyn Rockhold

The Salutations album and tour was met with much criticism and apprehension from Pitchfork seeing as Salutations 2017 was a short side-step from Ruminations 2016, which consisted of acoustic, solo tracks, and showed a rawer, more intimate side of Oberst. Ruminations, which was well received, stirred the theory that he may soon be shedding the cocoon of his former 2005 self who was defined by “protest song and smack-addled narcolepsy.” Salutations (released a year later) was a somewhat shallow reproduction of Ruminations with a backing band consisting of seven of his best friends and the track-list was shuffled. According to Pitchfork, at least.

But the folk-flagellant Oberst’s recent album Salutations 2017, though a short side-step from Ruminations 2016, for all its criticisms, gives its predecessor a stronger spine. The secondary album (a diptych of sorts) reiterates and strengthens its predecessor. And given that the Ruminations tour was merely half the size of the Salutations tour, Oberst may have merely wanted to give a wider breadth to his listenership. All in all, Oberst still remains a accomplished and capable musician, and a major contributor to the indie-folk subgenre as a whole. 

Author: Kendall Morris, Music Writer at Ultra5280