Live Review: Tim Wildsmith

I went and checked out Tim Wildsmith's set on Friday night at the Waiting Room. (Sorry this post is so late. Busy weekend.) I've seen him a couple times before, but this was the first time I got to see him play his new songs.

The translation of album to stage was quite good as far as the music was concerned. Wildsmith's voice is even more emotive in person than on his record making the delivery of his vulnerable and personal lyrics really hit home.

In fact, I've always thought that Wildsmith's voice has the emotiveness of Conor Oberst's voice, except that Wildsmith can actually sing. Have you ever seen Oberst spit out the lyrics to "Lua?" Yeah, like that. I can't help but make the comparison every single time. I think I may be onto something because my girlfriend said the same thing before I could even tell her what I thought.

He's also a pretty good frontman. A few screwups (like playing piano in the wrong key) were mostly first-time-playing-these-songs jitters, but they could have turned off those in the crowd that were infrequent concertgoers. But before that happened, Wildsmith was able to laugh it off with a few jokes.

I have to throw this in, too: Wildsmith & Co. did a wonderful, haunting version of "Eleanor Rigby" that I hope remains a part of their live set. It was phenomenal.

I hope Wildsmith is able to get out and tour. He's a talented songwriter, musician and performer and I really hope he can spread the word to those outside of Omaha.

As for the other bands, Levi Weaver and Charn, I wasn't amazed by either of them. Weaver did some cool stuff with delay pedals and stuff, but it wasn't groundbreaking. Charn was pretty unremarkable (not bad, necessarily), so we left during their set.

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"Bones" by Tim Wildsmith & The Lost Cause


"One Not Two" by Tim Wildsmith & The Lost Cause