Bright Eyes
Date: May 19, 2005 No More Whiskey Slurs After seeing a pair of respectable Bright Eyes concerts, my third look at the band proved to be one of the worst performances that I have witnessed. The best efforts of a tight and talented backing unit were squandered by frontman Conor Oberst, whose drunken delivery missed the mark all night. The Faint fared much better with their opening slot, earning a strong reaction from the crowd. With a constant video stream augmenting their energetic playing, the band kicked out a lot of noise and got a lot of bodies dancing. A set that stretched to the one-hour mark was overlong for my tastes; but I suspect that I was in the minority with that opinion, as the audience remained appreciative. This Bright Eyes tour was dedicated to Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, the more electric half of a double album release. The Faint was a suitable choice to retake the stage for backing assistance, joining a huge set of players. With most songs utilizing a ten-person band, there was no doubt that the music would sound full; and the fine mixing kept the sonics from sounding overcrowded. In fact, the tightness of the band was definitely the strongest aspect of the concert. While they kept the framework of the show in place, Conor Oberst generally failed to demonstrate passion, through either his guitar or keyboard playing or his vocals. It is not that the songs were disasters--in a setlist drawn almost entirely from Digital Ash, there were certainly some decent numbers. Rather, it was a case of the entire night being very flat. When the most memorable moments are Oberst complaining that a song usually gets a better reaction and later stumbling over amps during a sloppy encore, a true disaster might have been a welcome break from the tedium. A rock concert lives or dies on the energy put out by the players. While the band put in a solid showing, Oberst was clearly phoning in his performance, leading to a very weak showing. <--Prev (Death From Above 1979) | Next (Spoon)-->Return to Concert ListReturn to Main Page |