Live Review: Bright Eyes

Live Review: Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes: Aidin Vaziri | Conor Oberst has released six albums, launched his own record label, toured with R.E.M. and Bruce Springsteen, romanced Winona Ryder, sung with Emmylou Harris and, earlier this year, simultaneously released a pair of wildly different CDs that both went straight into the Top 20, making him rub shoulders with pop giants like Usher and Kelly Clarkson. On Tuesday, playing a sold-out show with his band Bright Eyes at the Berkeley Community Theater, the Nebraskan singer-songwriter celebrated his 25th birthday. He should be pinching himself, but Oberst merely looks confused. He shuffles on stage as if he just got off work restocking the shelves at Whole Foods, wearing high-water jeans and a ragged gray hoodie. He lets his floppy hair hang in his face and, when he's not taking enormous swigs of beer or fiddling around with the microphone stand, enigmatically mumbles things like, "This is a song about driving." He goes out of his way to suppress any hint of charisma, even though the reams of press he has built around his two latest releases, the folksy "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" and experimental "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn," suggest that beneath the cool exterior he secretly longs for John Mayer's life.