In a year dominated by wolves, Okkervil River’s Black Sheep Boy could well have been forgiven for looking a little wary of the company it kept in countless 2005 best-of lists. (Wolf) Parades, AIDS (Wolf), (Wolf)mother, and (Wolf) & Cubs aside, that the best part of my 2005 elapsed while listening to records originating from Okkervil River’s hometown of Austin shouldn’t really have come a surprise; the Texan city operating like a Darkplace-inspired haunt of American indie-bands.

First, Brit Daniels’ Gimme Fiction saw indie-rock media darlings Spoon seek to redefine ‘unanimously adored’, while cross-town indie-pop new-kids-on-the-block Voxtrot effectively rendered ‘kegs-between-legs’ era Morrissey redundant with The Start of Something’s implausibly brilliant 4 minutes and 31 seconds. And yet from that Texan glut of talent, 2005 seemed to exclusively belong to Okkervil River, who after six years and three LPs together saw fit to sequester a 1960s Tim Hardin folk-song as both literary theme and title for the Black Sheep Boy LP, one of last year’s most revered records.

If the bastion of indie-cred that is cokmachineglow.com likens chief singer/songwriter Will Sheff’s flailing stage presence as “more Napoleon Dynamite than Gram Parsons; all swinging hair and emphatic gestures in front of the microphone”, a jet-lagged and tour-weary Sheff might have been forgiven for recalling the shoe-gazing tendances of BSB for a subdued Monday night at the East Brunswick Club. Nonetheless, one sheepish confession to having fallen asleep backstage later, the skinny-tie clad young Texan was manically half-whispering half-howling set opener ‘The President’s Dead’ as the tour-regimented four piece band kicked in behind him, the cut released exclusively on LTI’s Overboard & Down Australian tour EP.

For the most part, the Austin five-piece sidestepped Black Sheep Boy’s inclination towards ruminative laments, instead calling on the additional guitar riff-raff of solo support whistler-slash-penner of Brunettes covers; Lawrence Arabia to belt out a back-catalogue of pop-informed numbers. When Okkervil River finally did unleash the LP’s centrepiece couplet All the Latest Toughs and Song of Our So Called Friend it was a revelation, eclipsing the recorded version with Will Sheff emoting like a self-contained likeness of Conor ‘I’m so-full of emotion I’m about to’ O-burst.

Maybe because it was a Monday night, or maybe just because Okkervil River are that good, the attentive audience hung off the band’s every word & note, with Sheff wildly oscillating between frantically throwing himself about the stage for Black’s pleading closing refrains and adolescent Ted Logan & Bill S. Preston jokes. I guess if nothing else, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure inspired time-travel would go some way to illuminating how Okkervil River managed to capture what felt like a century’s worth of anguish over unrepentant yet unrequited love into 1.5 hours for one of 2006’s most awe-inspiring performances.

So come back Okkervil River, we are waiting.