bright eyes, feist, and the magic numbers

Last night's show at DAR Constitution Hall was beyond thrilling--it was exhiliarting...after a nice dinner at a mexican tapas place in downtown DC we zipped on over to the place right in time to see The Magic Numbers open up with their rowdy rendition of their big single...the band was amazing and able to pull off their incredible three-part vocal harmonies perfectly live...they've got a very interesting sound in which they melt doo-woppish '50's vocal harmonies and arrangements with roots rock, a bit of alt.country, and straight up rock-n-roll all with modern twists...dueling xylophones? yes, that's right and I didn't even get into the melodica playing...incredibly talented UK kids that know how to bring down the house...up next was a band I had only heard bits and pieces about and didn't really know what to expect...it's feist...it's bascially a Canadian female singer/songwriter who can pull her own next to the likes of bjork...she does crazy vocal arrangements and it was pretty amazing to watch her record a loop live of some odd vocal harmonies and then sing live over top of them...the music is also somewhat rootsy but more pop with a rock-n-roll twist and crazy multi-instrument symphonic arrangements...we're talking trumpet and xylophone, her playing a crazy rock-a-billy style riff on the guitar, and samplers and of course a drummer with electronic drum triggers on his gear too...very interesting and while some of the songs were very atmospheric and moody to the point of me getting tired with them, I still enjoyed the show...basically this is a band that can be thoroughly enjoyed live but REALLY appreciated on disc...I can't wait to get some stuff by her...one song featured a colloboration with the chick from Rilo Kiley and Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes and there was also another dude from Bright Eyes in there whose name escapes me...then up last was of course Bright Eyes...Conor's voice was pretty incredible live and he played most of all the songs I wanted to hear with the exception of the b-side "True Blue" which is probably my favorite song of his...they had seven people on stage with most of them completely multi-instrumentalists...for example one lady played the xylophone, the harp, sang, played keyboards, and did some crazy almost thermine like effects with a laptop but I couldn't quit tell what it was from my vantage point...also on stage was upright bass played with a bow, keyboards, several different types of guitars, a drummer, plus a percussionist and another guitarist...there was also some trumpet and some other wacky stuff going on...very cool and it came out sounding simply amazing...I just don't know how songwriters arrange stuff this incredible and intricate...he encored with three songs, one of which brought the house down which of course was the political acoustic song "When the President Talks to God"...the thing that blew my mind was the audience which was mainly comprised of kids from the age range of 14-22 with most being young teens...and these were teenie-boppers to the max...it's pretty hilarious to see a bunch of indie kids who are all trying so hard to look so different all smashed up into a room where they all LOOK THE SAME...I know I did shit like this when I was young but boy was it obnoxious...it was funny to hear people blurt out stuff like "Conor I love you" or the dude that followed it up with "I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABY" which brought a laugh from Mr. Oberst...great show and good times...if you get a chance to catch this tour than DO IT