Bright Eyes @ History
. : : April 10th, 2025 : : .
I've seen Bright Eyes a couple of times in the (somehow) distant past, some eighteen years ago, and my memory of them is faint and fuzzy at best.
As someone who fell in love with Lifted...or the Story is in the Soil album, juuuuuuust before the band blew up big with their I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning album, I remember being really excited to see them live and leaving really disappointed.
The band was known for wild, energetic, and chaotic performances that teetered on the edge of being an incoherent mess, but which side it leaned towards on any given night seemed to depend on front man Conor Oberst's sobriety (or rather, the lack thereof).
The two shows I saw in Toronto I remember as being fine, if perfunctory, and really lacking in emotion -- an odd thing to say about a band that is synonymous with the emo genre.
Known for set lists that span the entire musical catalogue of one of the more prolific songwriters of our generation -- no b-side, limited release, split single, or rare EP song was ever off the table -- I still lucked out with actually pretty decent set lists. But somehow, I never connected with the live performance in the way I connected with the recordings.
After the better part of two decades, curiosity (and a great touring support act!) led me to give them a third chance, and ... well...
I left feeling like the performance was fine, if perfunctory, and somewhat lacking in emotion.
