Kevin Bronson on April 18th, 2011

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Who: Bright Eyes on the Coachella Stage
In 3 or Fewer Words: Doctor My Eyes?
I’ll Remember This Until: Conor Oberst kicks it up a gear. Conor’s conundrum: Pushing forward vs. pushing product: There’s something to be said for not using the sacred ground of Coachella as a platform to sell a new record. But when you come into the festival with a strong and quirky new album under your belt, you might want to play more than three of the songs. Instead of showcasing “The People’s Key,” Oberst and company went the career-spanning route, plotting the set with crowd-pleasing touchstones from the past decade, including ”Take It Easy (Love Nothing),” “Old Soul Song (For the New World Order)” and “Cassadega.” The range of tone and texture was wide, and it was all played potently and with passion, if not with the sense that it was rising far above what they deliver at every show. More and more, Oberst is looking like the Jackson Browne of his generation: earnest, questing, verbose, anthem-prone, philosophical verging into the cosmic, eternally youthful even as he ages. And if Browne was eclipsed by the coming of Springsteen, Oberst might have seen a looming shadow himself in the night’s headliner, Arcade Fire.
What I’d Tell My Friends Who Were at the Kills: So how was Alison?
– Richard Cromelin
Photos by Jim Donnelly