COUNCIL BLUFFS - Two excellent singer songwriters showed new sides Saturday night.

Pete Yorn and Ben Kweller played to a sold-out crowd at the Whiskey Roadhouse, a 650-capacity bar/club at the Horseshoe Casino.

Kweller's known as the frontman of former indie rock band Radish, which he was involved with when he was only a teenager. From there, he's had a mighty successful solo career.

It's that experience that served him well Saturday night.

Kweller, usually backed by a rock band, took the stage alone armed only with an acoustic guitar.

His songs stood up well without the extra accompaniment, but a lot of it was his charisma.

Kweller pushed through a 10-song set that included his recent songs such as "Fight" and "Penny On the Train Track."

He moved to the piano for "Falling," where he displayed some Billy Joel-like skills, and "Thirteen," maybe one of the best love songs ever written.

Had Yorn not put on such a strong set, Kweller might have showed him up.

Yorn's also in the singer-songwriter vein, usually.

His album, "Back & Fourth," was recorded in Omaha and has a very indie rock feel.

But his most recent effort, "Pete Yorn," was produced by The Pixies' Frank Black and is much more rock 'n' roll.

It was in that spirit that Yorn performed Saturday night.

He kicked off with three songs from the new album, which have The Pixies' loud-quiet-loud dynamic (or more like quiet-loud-quiet in Yorn's case).

But even older tunes such as "Murray" had a loud, rock energy to them.

My favorite new tune was "Rock Crowd " an ode to the fans at rock shows that was easily the most powerful of the night.

Yorn also treated fans to a rendition of "Keep On Rockin' In the Free World," a Neil Young tune that Yorn performed last week at Carnegie Hall for a tribute to the rock legend.

Yorn's version featured him onstage solo where he showed off his guitar skills.

Though the set seemed to be cut short, Yorn was grateful to fans, including those that that yelled out, "I love you, Pete," during the set.

"Thank you so much," Yorn said at the end of the show. "We'll be back again soon."