Desaparecidos

I walk in into a dimly lit theater.  The lights are glowing a warm orange and the upper section of the floor is arranged with 16 four-top tables, decorated only with plain black cloths.  The pit has no tables and even with a sparsely populated room, as doors have just opened, there are already die-hard, denim and thick rimmed glasses clad fans seated on the floor below the stage, staking claim to the coveted spots that put concert-goers but five feet from the performers in the 1,050 seat venue.

Despite the impending frenzy, one cannot help but relax into the scene at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS, on Monday, October 21st, encouraged to munch on candy and popcorn in the sometimes-cinema for independent films.  The current structure is 101-years-old and was initially purposed as an opera house, suggesting something grand while being actually quaint size.  The history of the Hall is much older than it’s most current 101 years, starting originally in 1854 as the Herald of Freedom Abolitionist Newspaper, only making the music about to fill this space more appropriate.

The So So Glos took to the stage at 8:30 pm.  They’re a band of brothers from Brooklyn that represent the things about punk rock that drive kids into a tizzy: namely, inclusion.  Singing songs laden with self-defined slang (see thesosoglos.com > Dictionary), the five-piece screamed and danced Kansans through stories about parties, friendships, injustice, and life in “New New York City”.  Lead man Alex Levine stopped often between songs to proselytize the virtues of dance, “The world is full of despair / So what can we do? / We can dance / We can spread the love.”  He ended the set, shimmying on a speaker in sync with the reverb from the three guitars and leaving the crowd efficiently and effectively worked up for the anxiously anticipated Desaparecidos.

For the short break between sets, the space seemed to be at least ten degrees hotter and the noise level more excited.  As the bodies began to draw in closer, I realized that the spot I had chosen off to the left was directly in front of what seemed to be set as a frontman mic.  9:45 rolled around and the room went nearly black; entered Landon Hedges, Denver Dalley, Ian McElroy, Matt Baum and then, I found myself gawking upward, inches away from Conor Oberst.  He was wearing a grey hoodie, pulled up over his head.  His band-mates had all dressed equally unassumingly in t-shirts and jeans, and everyone had his spot prepped with an unassuming PBR, Coors, or High Life.  The flashiest attire on any one person was Oberst’s moderately sized turquoise ring on his right hand in an otherwise monochrome scheme.  With polite waves, each member donned his gear and they flew into “The Left is Right” and ignited the audience with righteous anger.  From here, they moved to “Underground Man” with a quick thank you to the crowd from Hedges in between.  Song after song, word for word, the kids (as we all were kids for the night) were enraptured and singing along.

There was so much content and it was all known by heart by most of the crowd, so he didn’t need to ask anyone for participation, making the moments when Oberst did stop to interact with the throng absolutely dazzling.  He often took moments during songs to high-five and quickly grasp the hands of the bobbing, sweaty mass.  At the height of mania for a few fans, the show was halted by a young lady attempting to convince Oberst to write lyrics on her chest while a young man begged for a kiss.  Oberst laughed just a little and wished happy birthday to a girl who’d been trying to let him know it was her birthday for several minutes.

His most poignant moment of interaction was when he stopped to dedicate the seething “MariKKKopa” to Kansas Incumbent Kris Kobach, calling him out for involvement in passing laws known to benefit white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan.  This reeled the moment back in from Oberst madness and redirected the attention of the concertgoers to the ethos of the Desaparecidos.

The set consisted of 15 songs, including all six titles recently released in 2012 and 2013, with “Anonymous” eliciting a roar.  For their cover of “Spanish Bombs” by The Clash, Desaparecidos invited The So So Glos to join them.  The camaraderie amongst all band members was infectious and would have been a perfect end to the evening, had the audience not demanded an encore.  So, the Desaparecidos took the stage once more to play “Hole in One”.  As the band was strumming it’s final chords, a small boy was lifted above the crowd, met by a grinning Oberst who reached out and rubbed him on the head.

So So Glos set list
My Block
House of Glass
Blowout
Lost Weekend
Xanax
Diss Town
Black + Blue
Speakeasy
Everything Revival
We Got the Days

Desaparecidos set list
Left is Right
Underground Man
Mall of America
Happiest Place on Earth
Manana
Financial Planning
MariKKKopa
Backsell
Damaged Goods
Te Amo Camila Vallejo
$$$
Survival
Greater Omaha
Anonymous
Spanish Bombs (The Clash cover)
Hole in One