WILL SHEFF | Southpaw Show

Will Sheff of Okkervil River played a solo gig at Southpaw on Thursday. This show was a reminder that Will can reduce a song to just his voice, strumming only on chord changes or picking the bare-bones melody, and still keep it together. He played a slow version of "No Key No Plan" that twisted the anxious but optimistic song into a version that was pensive and fragile. He also started "Westfall" off slow but built speed and momentum that erupted in heavy distortion on his acoustic during the murder in the song. Will Sheff is an emotional dude, to say the least, and he ripped his heart out for that show.

set list (lots of new stuff, so it's a bit fuzzy):
Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe  /  ?  /  Song of Our So-called Friend  /  A Stone  /  ?  /  New Shearwater song (keyboard)  /  Song About a Star  /  No Key No Plan  /  New song about a Mom who gets a make-over on TV  /  cover (?)  /  Red  /  A Glow (keyboard)  /  For Real (keyboard)  /  encore  /  Baby Give Me Time (?)  /  Westfall