Bright Eyes show at Red Rocks in Colorado
We are, for better or worse (and, let’s be honest, it’s the worst) reliving the early 2000s. Wars of our own making, a faltering economy, and a leader that’s leading us…where, exactly? With that, though, we’ve at least been able to celebrate some of the best music of that otherwise sketchy period. Band of Horses rereleased their debut album, Everything All the Time, and they’ve been touring to celebrate its 20th anniversary. And late last year, Conor Oberst decided to throw a 21st birthday celebration for his band’s seminal 2005 releases: I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. Bright Eyes made the first of three tour stops Tuesday night at Red Rocks Amphitheatre to premiere the project on a picture-perfect Colorado evening.
Near the top of the show, Oberst remarked, “It took a really long time to get here.” An extra six days, in fact – Morrison, Colorado had experienced an unpleasant May snow dump on the show’s original night, but with the luck of a rare open date (and a fortuitous 40 degree temp upturn), the event dubbed “It’s a Birthday Party!” took off with kids portraying the plane crash that’s described at the top of I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. Now, I’m a sucker for an album tribute show (across the years, Queensryche’s Operation:Mindcrime and Drive-By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera stand out), but Tuesday night was TWO albums, with two entirely different sets and two largely separate bands. I’m Wide Awake, the twangy-er of the two records, featured Oberst’s longtime bandmates Mike Mogis and Nathaniel Wolcott (who were constants throughout the night). Mogis’ pedal steel work stood out, particularly on “Old Soul Song (for the New World Order),” which Oberst introduced by remarking that he “wrote this song right before we went to war in the Middle East…we’re doing it again.” The stage then cleared for Oberst’s solo take on the emotional showstopper “Lua.” The crowd was also treated to dual drummers Clark Baechle and Brian Chase on “Another Travelin’ Song,” but the highlight of the I’m Wide Awake set was the harmony vocals from Emma Ogier. The young Nashville-based singer-songwriter filled the Emmylou Harris role on songs like “Land Locked Blues” – no easy task, but crowd buzz between sets (and my own ears) pegged her as a stand-out. She’s one to watch.
In an unusual arrangement, the night’s “opening” act, longtime Oberst confidante Ben Kweller, took the stage with his band between Bright Eyes sets. Featuring early aughts favorites “Wasted and Ready” and “Sundress,” Kweller’s straight-up rock band proved to be a perfect bridge between the two albums. While I’m Wide Awake was the immediate attention grabber in 2005, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, with its serrated electronic edges, had to work harder to ingratiate itself to fans. On this night, though, the entire show was sequenced just right – from the indie country during the sundown of early evening to the high-tech smoke for the diehards of late night (and, on this night, everyone was a diehard). A small string section, full-time double drummers, and an impressive wall of screens proved that this three-stop tour was anything but a nostalgic cash-grab – it was the work of an artist who, even though we’re living through a near-mirror image of the turn of the century, still has much to say. Oberst’s ferocity during album opener “Time Code” set the tone for an emotive set, from burners like “Light Pollution” to a love song that Oberst asserted they’d not played live before, “Theme from Piñata.”
After wrapping the second set with “Easy/Lucky/Free,” the string section (Jenny Takamatsu, Alisha Bauer, Hillary Castle, Issac Kay and Alex Vittal) returned to perform “America the Beautiful” while the screens, which had carried Oberst’s (largely anti-facist) between-songs conversation during the Digital Ash set, portrayed our stark national history of genocide, slavery and bigotry, all the way up to this year’s ICE atrocities. But, at the risk of sounding a bit corny, Oberst’s final message to the approximately 9,200 assembled was one of love – all three encore songs contained the “L” word, concluding with a sing-along of the none-too-sentimental “Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (to Love and to Be Loved).” If we have to relive the slop of 20-some years ago, Oberst at least wanted us to feel a bit more than OK for one night. To borrow a phrase from that time period (and to use it accurately this time): Mission Accomplished.
Bright Eyes is slated to perform I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn twice more in the next month: at the Hollywood Bowl (CA) on May 23 and at Forest Hills Stadium (NY) on June 6. For more info, go here: https://www.thisisbrighteyes.com/tour