a camera in the crowd: Jenny Lewis w/ Okkervil River @ Numbers, Houston, 10/22/06

Oh Jenny Lewis and Will Sheff, you guys are the greatest. Last night was definitely one of the best shows I've been to. The opening band, Oakley Hall was mediocore and didn't really catch my attention. Their style was all over the place from psychedelic, rock, country to what the?

Anyways, after a confusing listen to Oakley Hall, we waited around for Okkervil River to set up. I'm not too familiar with Okkervil River's material, but they were so amazing live. Somehow I thought Will Sheff and the rest of the band would just be kind of mellow-y and staying in one place the whole set, but was I wrong! Will Sheff was jumping around at the most climatic parts of songs and you could see drummer, Travis Nelson was smiling and having a great time; he'd randomly throw and catch his drumsticks. Most drummers that I see live look as if they're angry or just so focused they don't even bother to look into the audience. I loved Will and bassist, Patrick Pestorius's bantering about reminders of exploding science projects and dads. I love how Brian Cassidy has such a manly-outdoorsy look, and how that clashed with the tiny mandolin he has plays."For Real", "Westfall" and relatively new song, "The President's Dead" along with several others. I have a feeling that their set was somehow shorter than the opening band or maybe, it's because they played so amazingly, time just flew by.

Jenny Lewis started with her live version of "Run Devil Run", which she actually wrote so she wouldn't feel embarassed while testing mics onstage. It grew into a slew of songs of "Big Guns", "You Are What You Love", "Happy", "Melt Your Heart", "Born Secular", "The Charging Sky", "Rise Up With Fists!!!"and also several new songs like "Jack Killed Mom", "Acid Tongue", "Fernando", "Carpetbaggers" and a cool a cappella with the Watson twins, "I Met Him On a Sunday". I didn't write down what order, but there they are. In the middle of the set, the Watson Twins and Jenny Lewis left the stage for change of clothes. While the audience was guessing where she went, the rest of the band played an intro to the next song on the list, while Johnathan Rice introduced everyone on stage, finishing off introducing Jenny Lewis and the Watson twins.
They walked onstage with the Watson twins in matching copper shiny minidresses and Jenny donned in a gold minidress. This "Act II" of the set was a much more upbeat companion to the first slower-paced beginning. Jenny would sometimes dance with the Watson twins and they would be dancing synchronized and everyone was having fun onstage. She also introduced a lot of the new songs during this half.

During the ending of what was percieved as the last song, Jenny first left and then the other members of the band left one by one, until there was only drummer Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley) was remaining drumming like a madman. Then he left too and the stage was so bare. The audience screamed, clapped, whistled, and did anything for Jenny to come back and play more songs. For probably two minutes, it was an ongoing restless requests for more. Till, each of the band members finally coming back onstage. They were surprised coming out and even more when someone threw a bra with a telephone number written on it, "Thanks for the...bra," Jenny commented. She then proceeded to play a new song called "Jack Killed Mom" and several others ending with the Traveling Wilburys cover "Handle With Care".

What a night!