Okkervil River played at the Vic last night and tore the house down. It was my first time at the Vic (and seeing OR) and I arrived when the doors opened. I sat around for an hour, and then watched the Felice Brothers try their best as an opening act. Then came Will Sheff and the band. They started, fittingly with Wake and Be Fine, with a screen of the larger than life praying dogs, that are on the cover of I am Very Far, hanging behind them. The set list was as follows: (verified by eyegunk.wordpress)
1. Wake and Be Fine
2. For Real
3. Rider
4. Black*
5. Piratess
6. Song Of Our So-Called Friend
7. John Allyn Smith Sails*
8. We Need a Myth
9. The Valley
10. No Key, No Plan (acoustic duo with Patrick Pestorius)
11. So Come Back, I Am Waiting
12. Westfall*
13. Your Past Life as a Blast
14. Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe
15. Lost Coastlines*
16. Unless It’s Kicks (no encore, but they played through)
The great thing about the show was the mixing of new songs with old ones, and they played all my favorites(*)[Except Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel 1979, which is a difficult title to shout out if requesting]. Out of the four, Westfall is probably my favorite OR song, and it was so reassuring to hear everyone in the crowd not only sing along to "Evil don't look like everything" but all the other lyrics as well. Westfall is my favorite song, but with its subject matter, I have always felt strange knowing its my favorite. I've really grown to enjoy songs, or stories, or television shows that make me shiver ("And when I killed her, it was so easy that I wanted to do it again.") and Westfall is a perfect song example of that. Everyone also sang along to John Allyn Smith Sails, which is another a great sing-along to song, and in my opinion better than The Hold Steady's Stuck Between Stations. The things I love about John Allyn Smith Sails are that it is an accurate and chilling glimpse of John Berryman's life, the structure of the song harkens back to the Beach Boys' Sloop John B., and how that can be traced back to a Carl Sandburg collection of folk songs.
OR took a break about mid way, and only Will and Patrick were left on the stage. They played an acoustic version of No Key, No Plan and Patrick did his best to replace the lyrics Jonathan Meiburg sang so beautifully for the album (and then again for Lost Coastlines), but it was when Will sang the lyrics "I'm doing what I really love and getting paid for it" that I could not help but feel thankful for it being true, and wanting that in my future as well. Then, he sang the final lyrics, "There's only now, there isn't then, so breathe it in" and I felt more connected to a singer-song writer than ever before.
The penultimate song was Lost Coastlines, and I've never had so much fun singing la la la la.... For the final two songs, Will had the everyone in the crowd clapping and singing, and when he wasn't leading us on, he was jamming on his guitar like rock and roll stars should (the tech/roadie guy repeatedly had to come out and plug in Will's guitar). Also, twice, Will knocked down his microphone and both times the pianist caught in the coolest of fashion). Will jumped and jammed and got on the floor like how I imagine I would if I were in his shoes (I actually remember performing a dance skit with my Cub Scout group for a ceremony and we had an air guitar solo and during warm-ups I was told by Den mother not to hop around on one foot, and spin in circles, while playing air guitar, and instead just stand there pretending to shred like Slash or Hendrix, which her son was doing. Hopping around on one leg, and spinning in circle, was natural to me, and I feel that Will probably did that when he was 10. My former best friend also has video proof of this.) Anyway, Will performed like it was his last songs he'd ever sing, and the results were better than great. He started the show by apologizing for not being in Chicago for so long, and after the show he twittered that last night was the best show of tour and he'd be back soon. I'm so happy I went and I can't wait to see them again.
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la.......
