Before the Financial Collapse. Before Occupy Wall Street.
Before Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.
Before Bright Eyes became a household name, in 2001, a 21 year old Conor Oberst wrote a song for his emo/post-hardcore side project Desaparacidos called “Greater Omaha.”
An angry young man’s response to an unsustainable financial system and an insatiable American consumer culture, “Greater Omaha” is a juggernaut of a song and evidence of Oberst’s songwriting virtuosity.
Like a millenial Dylan or Rimbaud, the poetry and emotional core of the thing gives voice (in eerily prophetic fashion) to a zeitgeist level angst that wouldn’t find a voice until years later…and only after the proverbial sh*t hit the fan.
Desaparecidos have released a pair a new songs and are performing later this summer at the FYF Fest.
Below is live footage of Desaparecidos performing “Greater Omaha” somewhere, no doubt, in the early 00’s. Can’t wait to hear it in September.