Deerhunter @ Neumos
Dressed head to toe in black like Johnny Cash, kicking off a 90-minute set at Neumo’s last night, Conor Oberst leaned his right cheek hard against the microphone. His shoulders trembling, the tip of his black boot tapping, he closed his eyes and sang a line from “Moab”: “There’s nothing the road cannot heal.” It started as just another lyric but, after several repetitions, arose as a mantra. It was the sort of hard-thought, hard-lived refrain that drove the whole show along its terrain, from heartbreak to disappointment, to well-intentioned resignation.
Preceded by an impressive opening performance from Kansas band Dri (pronounced “dree”), Oberst’s set drew mostly from his forthcoming self-titled disc (due Aug. 5). At turns, the band retreated, leaving him alone for some of the most haunting moments of the night. “Lenders in the Temple” proved particularly arresting—lines like “If I loved you, that’s my fault” enticing the sold-out space to near-silence.
Then there were the loud moments of frantic strumming and spitting into the air. He kneeled on the floor, looking up at guitarist Taylor Hollingsworth, who worked his way through slaughtering solo after slaughtering solo. Then, in one move, Oberst was back at the mic, shoving out his rhythmic, meandering lyrics and pulling the attentive crowd along with him. “NYC—Gone Gone” rocked this way, as did “Sausalito,” which the band played harder and faster than on the disc.
He left the crowd with fan favorite “Milk Thistle,” and let them ruminate in his wake. A good few minutes passed before the band returned for a four-song encore that included a slow rocking blues version of “Corrina Corrina.” Once and for all, sitting at the keyboard for his final number, Oberst closed his eyes and lit into “Breezy” with the same meditative, heartbreaking energy he used to start the night. “I love you now,” he sang, “I know that doesn’t matter.”