The last time we saw Conor Oberst at the 9:30 Club, performing under his Bright Eyes moniker just prior to the release of Cassadaga in 2007, the mood in the room was quite different. Oberst had decided to draw a line in the sand and accordingly, refused to play anything from his extensive back catalog. His fans, however, weren’t having it, shouting out requests at every opportunity (naturally, alongside screams of “I love you Conor!”). This clearly irritated Oberst and about halfway through the set, he finally snapped. “You know all those songs you’re yelling out? Yeah, we actually played those,” he sneered at the tweens in the front row. “You’re just five years too late.”

Oberst’s performance this past Monday was of a far different tenor, but that’s likely the result of better managed expectations. This time around, he was performing under his given name, alongside his new backing ensemble, The Mystic Valley Band. As such, most of the fans who showed up probably didn’t expect much more than tunes from Oberst’s latest, self-titled LP of folk-rock, and that’s precisely what they got, alongside a smattering of new songs and a couple of covers.