Posted on by Miles Rausch

The Bright Eyes Concert

Also known as, The Last Bright Eyes post for a while.

My first thought, walking into the airplane hangar, was “Can a God fit on something so small?” It was a little tongue-in-cheek, but I got out my miniature notebook and made the first of many marks in the difficult darkness.

Dave Rawlings Machine

The opener was the Dave Rawlings Machine. They were good. Dave Rawlings, we found out, was traveling with Bright Eyes, playing guitar for them, and opening Thursday night. Little to his surprise, it would seem. But he played an awesome set. He’s a ferocious guitar player, and he sings and plays with expressions that border on ecstasy and constipation. It was humorous but great. He played a spectacular song called Joey by Bob Dylan that I haven’t been able to get out of my head since.

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Then there was Simon Joyner. I’m sure that he’s a very talented musician, but he brought down the tempo, which was a dangerous move. The crowd started getting restless. He sang with a sneer. He did play a rousing version of Short Stack, a song from an earlier release of his. I liked that song.

Bright Eyes

Then it was Bright Eyes. And it. was. awesome.

Set List
– – – – – –
1. I Must Belong Somewhere
2. Four Winds
3. Poison Oak
4. Method Acting
5. Arc of Time (Time Code)
6. Spring Cleaning
7. Lover I Don’t Have To Love
8. You Will? You. Will? You. Will?
9. Classic Cars (for California)
10. Lua (with Gillian Welch)
11. Another Travelin’ Song (for Dave Rawlings)
12. Hit the Switch
13. Old Soul Song (For The New World Order) (for New York City)
– – – – –
14. Man Named Truth (new song, unofficial title)
15. Walls (Circus) (Tom Petty cover)
16. Roosevelt Room (new song, unofficial title)

Dave Rawlings joined the band, taking the place, temporarily, of Mike Mogis. I was sad to not get to see Mike Mogis, but Dave Rawlings was really, really good. It added a fire-breathing, laser-guided heat missle of a guitar solo to the already fabulous Bright Eyes songs.

Also, in drunken-related news, Jeff got pretty violently accosted by a woman who had been drinking. She really wanted him to dance, which he did a little bit after the initial confrontation, but then she left. I had a drunk close encounter myself. Instead, this guy, who was scary drunk (head down, shifty eyes, swagger), had fallen over. Hard. Another guy, who also seemed to be pretty tipsy, helped him up. The guy stood next to me for a short while, then he faded into the crowd behind me. Not cool, creepy drunk guy.

All-in-all, it was a fabulous concert. It was awesome getting to hang out with Jeff, which we haven’t done in a while, and it was even better to experience such great music.

Okay, that’s it about Bright Eyes for a while. I promise.

8 Replies to “The Bright Eyes Concert”

  4. No, they mostly did new stuff, from Cassadaga and I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning. They didn’t anything older than Lifted. However, Spring Cleaning was a surprise. I looked through my library, and I couldn’t find it, so I assumed it was a cover. I then discovered that it’s from a split EP they did with Neva Dinova called One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels, which I had on my PC but not my Mac.

    The other cool thing is that Roosevelt Room, the last encore they played, lasted something like 8 minutes. Twice they made it seem like they were done, and then another solo would start up, and the song would go on. At the end, they left the still-playing instruments on stage and just walked off. It’s something that Radiohead does, too.

  6. I’m so excited that you were able to enjoy such an awesome concert! But I’m most relieved that the posts are over, sorry, truth hurts sometimes. Love burn.

  8. Pingback: The Ben Folds Concert | Of Miles Rausch

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