Bright Eyes: O2 Institute Birmingham – live review

Bright Eyes
O2 Institute Birmingham
5th September 2022

After an eleven-year hiatus, Bright Eyes accompany their comeback material with a much anticipated Europe and UK tour – Amy Britton checks out 

Its been a long wait for the UK dates of the lengthy comeback tour from Nebraskan icons Bright Eyes; not only does this date take place a full two years after its initial schedule due to Covid postponements, but it is also their first tour of Britain in eleven years. Anticipation is high in the Birmingham Institute this evening, with an audience mainly made up of “elder Millenials” who adopted Conor Oberst as their personal Laureate. But this is absolutely not a nostalgia tour, as is quickly evident in numerous ways.

Things get off to a fresh, fully charged start with the support Penelope Isles, whose brand of unprocessed indie weaves the ethereal in with expansive drama. Its a very twenty-first century take on shoegaze.

When Bright Eyes do take to the stage, they open with Dance And Sing, a song from the 2020 comeback album Down In The Weeds Where The World Once Was, brimming with assured confidence. It’s as rich and majestic as they have sounded, with the added, unexpected twist of some exuberant dance moves from Oberst.

The immediate reaction, proven fugue-like throughout the night, is the power and talent of the current band – not just Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott but the wider section of strings, brass and just about every variant of the keyboard family imaginable. A creme-de-la-creme of musicians, they are utterly outstanding throughout, bringing additional depths to every song on the setlist -and what a diverse and era-spanning setlist it is. Some of the biggest surprises come from them rolling the clock right back to the Nineties, with the inclusion songs as early as the lo-fi-tinged Falling Out Of Love At This Volume and an utterly raw Neely O’Hara.

The shifts from the past to the present day are seamless. The benefit of the enforced gap between the release of Down In The Weeds and the opportunity for the band to play them live means the songs have become fully familiar to the audience in a way which ensures they get just as huge a response as the earlier classics. And rightly so, with them sounding emotional, anthemic and amongst the set highlights.

Of course, the Noughties crowd-pleasers still pack some serious punches. In the middle of the set, a wonderful, full-fat version of Shell Games soars, followed by an emotionally charged Poison Oak. It’s a moment so stirring and affecting that you can almost feel the collective lump in the throat of the audience. But anyone expecting a night of simply the tear-stained melancholy that Bright Eyes name has become synonymous may be surprised. Largely because a very chatty and personable Oberst is incredibly funny throughout; his anecdotal introductions to songs usually wrapping up with a droll punchline. When he jokes about warranting his own hour-long tv-special, you find yourself really actually hoping that happens.

It cannot be denied that the initial smoothness at the beginning of the set is not sustained, but this turns out to be serendipitous in itself. Upon messing up First Day Of My Life, Oberst invites an audience member to sing instead. The gamble pays off, with her voice is so enchantingly beautiful the crowd erupt into applause and are more than happy for her to take the whole song. Like the smudge in a charcoal sketch which completes it, the flaws somehow fall into place. Oberst has never been predictable, and tonight once proves him as “perfectly imperfect” as his oft-flawed fanbase who have always related.

The band close with an optimistic rendition of One For Me, One For You, preceded by a small monologue that reiterates not just the message of the song, but everything the band stand for and hope we will stand for too – decency,  kindness, and helping each other out. It’s a message that is eternal and timeless and shows a band synonymous with the Noughties absolutely have their place in 2022. In the wake of a universally difficult period, it’s good to have them back.

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Find more Bright Eyes information on their website

All words by Amy Britton – read more on her archive https://louderthanwar.com/author/amy-britton/

Source: louderthanwar.com