Fyrewurks » Cain’s Ballroom

Fiery Furnaces @ Cain’s Ballroom 01-24-10

Jennifer — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:30:26 +0000

On Sunday night, my sister and I came in from the frigid air of a quiet downtown Tulsa to see the Fiery Furnaces at Cain’s Ballroom. The Brooklyn brother-sister team (Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger) was laid back when we arrived: Eleanor hanging out in the small crowd consisting of 30-40 fans, and Matt selling t-shirts until they went on.

Once they did get on stage, they played sans keyboards, sans Matt’s vocals, and très rapide. I can only assume that they played such fast versions of their songs to make up for the lack of keyboards and extra vocals; granted, it is customary to speed up songs during live performaces, but just when you thought Eleanor couldn’t sing/talk and faster, she’d pour out a montage of Blueberry Boat songs faster than an auctioneer selling cattle. And although keyboards are typically a key part of their songs, they still managed to put on a pretty good show without them… considering it a was a 2nd-stage stop on a Sunday night.

They played songs not only from “Blueberry Boat,” but also from “Bitter Tea” and “I’m Going Away,” including the wonderfully ominous “The End is Near” which could be talking about anything from a relationship to apocalypse with “The end is near, the end is near the time has come. There ain’t no way, nobody will save you now… don’t even think that there’s a way out of this. Down the road and up the creek it’s over, it’s such a clear and certain hell of a thing, it’s over.”

And even though we had to be at work the next morning, it was worth it because it was such a small crowd in a relaxed venue, making for an intimate evening with the Friedbergers.

: Fiery Furnaces

Fiery Furnaces

Decemberists Photos

Jennifer — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:15:25 +0000

We didn’t get in early enough to get to the front, but I did manage to get some OK photos at the Cain’s ballroom Decemberists show earlier this month:

Decemberists @ Cain's 10-4-09

Conor Oberst at Cain’s

Jennifer — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:45:09 +0000

Conor Oberst

Well my husband and I got to see Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band at Cain’s recently and enjoyed the laid-back show that Conor and the new band put on. Since it was him and his new band, we didn’t get to hear all those classic Bright Eyes songs like “Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (to love or to be loved)” and “Messenger Bird’s Song,” but it gave us a chance to hear the new songs live (and hearing songs live often gives me a new perspective on them and can sometimes turn a seemingly-boring-skip-to-the-next-song into a great one that I’ll eventually overplay).

I was sort of hoping M. Ward might show as well, considering that Pitchfork suggested he might be in Conor’s new band, but he wasn’t. It was still cool.

I’m still not into the MVB songwriting as much as I am with most Bright Eyes songs, but I do enjoy the latest album enough to have it playing in my car for much of this Indian summer – and it fits the season well.

I see someone put together a nicely edited little montage of the Cain’s show on YouTube…