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It might seem like a fruitless effort for Conor Oberst to distance himself from Bright Eyes, the moniker under which he’s recorded for 10 years, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to try. Tuesday night at a sold out show at The Troubadour, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band performed no songs from the Bright Eyes catalog but instead kept to the songs that make up Conor Oberst as well as some new tunes and a few covers.

Opening the night was Lawrence, KS’s Dri whose mix of lead singer (and Dri herself) Adrianne Verhoeven’s sultry vocals and her backing bands jazzy instrumentation made for a nice intro to the night before Conor & Co. unleashed their rootsy rawk. Dri played to a half empty Troubadour at the beginning of their set but luckily most people had filed in by the last few songs to catch at least the end. “Smoke Rings” (the title track from their current full length) was the highlight of their set where Dri stepped out from behind her Roland keyboard and transformed the crowded all ages troubadour into a smoke filled blues club in the forties.

After an exhaustive break between sets, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band (Nate Walcott, Jason Boesel, Macey Taylor, Nik Freitas and Taylor Hollingsworth) finally hit the stage to a very welcoming audience. After a minute or two of appreciative applause the group launched into the Blood on the Tracks-esque “Get Well Cards”. The remainder of their initial set consisted of many of the new album’s stand out tracks (”Sausalito”, “I Don’t Want to Die (in a hospital)”, “Danny Callahan”) as well as a couple new tracks including one that featured one of Conor’s best autobiographical lines, “In the glass houses, in the pages of the rolling stone, I get this feeling like I’m rocking the boat”. Guitarist Taylor Hollingsworth lead one track too and the set finished with Conor playing the “Lenders in the Temple” with just bassist Macey Taylor.

A surging and unstoppable sea of applause brought the band back out quickly but with out Conor. Guitarist and Team Love recording artist, Nik Freitas led the band with one of his own songs from his latest album Sun Down. Conor returned after and the group ran through a cover of Harry Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talking” with Macey taking the lead vocals. A couple more new songs and a cover of “Corrina, Corrina” rounded out the rest of the encore set before Conor again finished with one of the album’s most intimate tracks “Milk Thistle”. A song that focuses mostly on the concept of death “I wear death on my head like a weighted crown” and “If I go to Heaven, I’ll be bored as hell” was particularly moving with just Conor’s guitar and Nate Walcott’s organ.

Getting to see Conor Oberst at the Troubadour was a special treat that was definitely cherished by everyone there, including Oberst himself as he said it was the first time he was able to play there since 2002. A cheery Oberst left the stage looking in much higher spirits than the Oberst who originally came out and talked of the fight he had with LA last night (article here). Helping the cause, many of his LA friends made it out as well, including Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennet, Johnathan Rice, Maria Taylor and others. A good thing as Oberst is already set to play two dates at the Fonda in October.