SHOW REVIEW: Bright Eyes
By Michelle Bird
It was a mere six months ago when Bright Eyes played to a sold out crowd at Orlando’s House of Blues. The indie rock band–
led by singer-songwriter Conor Oberst, came back on Sunday for a second round in support of their latest album, The People’s Key.
This massive audience would prove to be quite different though– the day of the concert was also one of the most tragic anniversaries in American history, the 10th anniversary of September 11. While many concert-goers may have been emotionally drained by the repeated imagery on TV, the Bright Eyes show served as a musical healer at night. The lyrics, songs, and the whole show had a prodigious meaning– most, if not all of Conor Oberst’s tunes deal with the introspective realm of life’s turbulent truths.
As Oberst introduced “Jejune Stars,” he empowered the crowd while sharing that the song was about “turning the corner, and starting over,” then added, “and it couldn’t be a better day to play it.”
The ring-leader with a revolutionary force, also carried the sincerity and innocence of a child through the two hour set– whether it was shuffling his feet in “Landlocked Blues,” to spinning around with his guitar on “Take It Easy (Love Nothing),”– comforting the crowd with compassionate words struck a chord of hope. Oberst made you feel like, everything was gonna be alright.
The opening act, First Aid Kit, joined Oberst onstage for a toned-down version of “Lua,” in which case the audience became a ghostly choir in the backdrop singing along as the first verse drifted through the waveless room.
There were instances when Conor embodied a poetic preacher as he did on “Approximate Sunlight”– dropping lines and acting out certain lyrics became a well-crafted spectacle.
Right before closing the night with “One For You, One For Me,” Oberst addressed the topic that had been in everyone’s mind all day:
“9/11 was one of the saddest, scariest days ever, and what followed was one of the saddest decades ever…you’re never gonna save the world with the barrel of a gun.”
Some speculate that The People’s Key is Bright Eyes last album, but I don’t think the lion has let out his last roar just yet.
Bright Eyes Setlist:
1. Four Winds
2. We Are Nowhere and It’s Now
3. Trees Get Wheeled Away
4. Old Soul Song (For The New World Order)
5.Take It Easy (Love Nothing)
6. Jejune Stars
7. Landlocked Blues
8. Lover I Don’t Have To Love
9. Shell Games
10. Approximate Sunlight
11. Hot Knives
12. If the Brakeman Turns My Way
13. Another Travelin’ Song
14. Lua
15. Triple Spiral
16. I Believe In Symmetry
17. The Calendar Hung Itself
18. Ladder Song
Encore:
19. Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (To Love and To Be Loved)
20. Road To Joy
21. One For You, One For Me
