Okkervil River played Brooklyn’s newest bar The Bell House on Tuesday.  Playing to a sold out crowd, they played most songs from their last two outstanding albums The Stage Names and The Stage Ins. 

Will Sheff and band were in fine form this night.  Songs such as “Black Sheep Boy and “For Real” are blistering live.  I love the pairing of these two songs which is how it also appears on their album Black Sheep Boy.  “Black Sheep Boy” starts off with just Will and guitar, but then it goes into “For Real” which is dark, loud, and wonderful. 

The scariest moment might have been a drunken fan that barreled through the front of the stage and started dancing wildly.  Thankfully, he was taken away by security after one song.  It was a bit of a frightening moment in otherwise a fantastic show.

This was my fifth time seeing them and one of the reasons why I keep going to their live shows is the energy they put into every performance.  There is no doubt in my mind that they leave everything out there and I leave wanting more. 

The set list:

“Plus Ones”
“Singer Songwriter”
“A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene”
“Black”
“Starry Stairs”
“John Allyn Smith Sails”
“The Latest Toughs”
“Red “
“Get Big”
“Blue Tulip”
“Pop Lie”
“Lost Coastlines”
“Black Sheep Boy”
“For Real”
“Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe”
“Unless It’s Kicks”
——–
“Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed On The Roof Of The Chelsea Hotel, 1979”
“Girl in Port”
“Another Radio Song”