Oberst will call Fairacres home

BY NIZ PROSKOCIL


WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Next month, indie musician Conor Oberst will take a short Canadian tour and appear at a prestigious music festival.

Omaha's Conor Oberst will play a concert June 17 in Memorial Park.

After that, he's coming home.

To Omaha. And he might stay awhile.

Oberst - whose band Bright Eyes has become one of the most popular indie-rock acts in the country - is expected to move into a Fairacres home after the tour and his landmark free concert scheduled for June 17 in Memorial Park.

The 25-year-old singer-songwriter recently purchased the 4,091-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bath home for about $648,000, according to the Douglas County Register of Deeds Office.

The two-story house could become Oberst's main residence. Jason Kulbel of Omaha's Saddle Creek Records - the recording label for Bright Eyes - said he thinks Oberst plans to live in Omaha full-time.

The home is within blocks of the Dodge Street residence of Mike Mogis, a Bright Eyes band member and producer who is building a studio there. Bright Eyes is working on a new album.

In recent years, Oberst has maintained an apartment in New York and has owned a home in Omaha's Dundee neighborhood.

His new brick home, obscured by large greenery in front, appears to be one of the more modest dwellings on its block.

Bright Eyes kicks off the Canadian tour June 4 in Vancouver, B.C., before returning to the States for a June 16 performance at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee. The three-day festival features such acts as the Neville Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Beck and Radiohead.

On June 17, Bright Eyes plays the free Omaha concert with Welsh musician Gruff Rhys and local band Neva Dinova.

It will be Oberst's first free concert in Omaha and his first outdoor show here. Tens of thousands of fans are expected to attend.



That's a pretty hefty pricetag and a sizeable house for Omaha. I knew he was making some decent cash, but not enough to fork out 650K for a house. I think I dislike him a little more now, even though this is a little less pretentious than moving away from Nebraska to live in NYC.

Don't begrudge a man for buying a house. And that wouldn't buy a tool shed in some towns.

Niz Proskocil? Is that like a special kind of topical hydrocortisone?

note to self: Change mailing address for all my hate mail to Omaha.

The real question, though, is when is 311 moving back?

yeah man they need to get back to their roots and release another Music.

Where is Fairacres? Is that that development off Pacific (or is it Center) that's all huge houses crammed in right on top of one another?

does anyone really give a flying fuck where he lives?

Not a flying one, no. Well not any kind of one.

not me. Although,it's kind of hypocritical of myself to have opened this thread if I truly didn't care. Maybe I just wanted my blood to boil this early afternoon.

It looks like Fairacres is just off Dodge around 64th Street. It is near the University of Nebraska-Omaha. I believe it is a neighborhood of historic mansions or luxury homes that seems out of place with the rest of the neighborhoods around there.

Damn. I keep reading this thread title as Obnoxious dork moving back to Omaha. Must be an optical illusion.

Is he really bringing in that kind of cash??? That's pretty shocking to me. I didn't think indie artists made anywhere near that much. I've always thought success in the indie world meant not needing a roommate for your apartment anymore.

I know he's bringing a decent amount of cash, I just didn't think it was that much. From the article, he already owns a home in Dundee, the arty neighborhood of Omaha and an apartment in NYC, that had to cost as much as a house payment in Nebraska. I don't know what he is making for the free show in Omaha coming up, but the City and ConAgra spent 50,000 on it.
His parents are pretty much loaded, so if he invested his money early on, he's got to be doing ok.

Oooh. Trust-fund baby. That pretty much explains the coke addiction.