Bright Eyes - Down In The Weeds Where the World Once Was (August 21, 2020) Album • Page 37

Lots of concern for Conor's health in the IG comments. Assuming those people have never seen him live before. I will admit his stage banter wasn't the best I've seen from him but he still made some funny comments here and there. Wish Mike & Nate talked more.

I was at the New Haven & Queens shows too. Glad I went to both so I got to see Easy/Lucky/Free in New Haven and One For You as the closer in NY. Calendar Hung Itself was a good addition to the setlist in NY too. I was GA Floor and feel like I should get a covid test later this week.

 

Yeah this was my first time ever seeing him play live and, i didn't really notice anything too bad. I've definitely been able to tell when an artist is too inebriated to perform before, and it certainly was not the case with him, that I could tell.

 

Yea he was solidly in the "just having a good time" zone. I loved it because I was in the same mindset haha

 

Was my first time seeing him and I admit a couple of his comments leaned a little morose and a few moments I wasn't sure if he was okay TBH

 

Baffles me that people can like his doom & gloom music & then be caught off guard when he talks doom & gloom in between songs too.

 

I mean just look at him, he was having a blast

 

I def don't mean to be alarmist in bringing that up about Friday's show, but I did think his vibe was different than any time I've seen him before (many times going back to the Wide Awake tour). Perhaps partially the perspective shift of being an adult watching an adult rather than a teenager watching someone in their musical prime, but any wasted Conor show I've seen before was joyous and fun, whereas Friday was more sloppy than anything else.

And by morose it was less the world-is-ending truth he was shouting all the way back in the Bush era and more just legit old man yells at cloud stuff ("there's no such thing as real punk anymore") and a lot of lamenting being old - he must have joked about being 58 five times and it just kinda got weird. Musically and vocally, some of the show was transcendent and some was a legit mess. Not that I frequent Bright Eyes reddit, but I was curious what others said after and it was a lot of the same.

Glad to hear NY was better. Everyone's got off nights, certainly ain't crucifying him for it, just that he seemed a bit off.

 

Yeah I mean he def. messed up "First Day of My Life" in Queens with the wrong lyrics etc. but still a great show. I think the last year and a half and now playing shows in such uncertain times is affecting him too obviously.

I also feel like the New Haven show was a better performance from him but the NY show had a more electric vibe with the crowd and more hype for the openers. I missed Lucy in New Haven because it started so damn early.

One of my most memorable Conor shows was this Rocky Mountain Folk Fest in CO where Corina basically had to stand behind him and make sure he didn't fall over:

 

What if he took two years off of touring and ten years off from doing it with this band and came out with a flawless career-spanning set? Would be big.

 

haha

 

he also just did that interview with katie about being on tour again and the queens show and mentioned how wordy his songs are and how hard it is to remember everything

as far as getting the lyrics wrong goes

seems pretty standard tour stuff. probably made a little weirder and more stressful by where we’re at with the pandemic

 

For sure. Being at the show definitely felt like we were all getting away with something.

 

It could be that Conor and a lot of others aren't comfortable being up there - and with good reason! There are a lot of people not named Conor, Mike, and Nate who need these shows to survive, and so I get why the tour goes on but yeah... now's really not a good time for big shows with lots of drunk people singing. Not to scold anyone who went, because I still would've gone to Atlanta if they hadn't canceled.

I'm just saying a morbid attitude is almost REQUIRED to do this kind of work now. I'm a college prof and I feel nervous about going into a room with 30 people right now (masked and sitting down). Given what we know about vaccinations I'm resigned to getting a mild case of it in the next two months and being sick for at least two weeks.

 

I feel like his banter has always been very sadistic and dark. I remember seeing him solo before Wide Awake and it was very very messy. Like fell out of a chair messy. Since then results have varied in his performances that I’ve seen. I mean I guess he could have played a shorter set and been more rehearsed but I think people appreciate the deep cuts…even when he bumbles through them. That being said hope he’s in a good space. He’s always one of those artists you worry about.

 

Forgot to mention how disappointed I was that they're not playing "Calais to Dover" on this run. Give me that instead of First Day of My Life as the first song of the encore and it would be a near perfect set!

 

I just don't know how you have "To Death's Heart (In Three Parts)," "Stairwell Song," and "Calais To Dover" and don't play them every opportunity you get. I do think it's kind of odd that "Persona Non Grata" or "Forced Convalescence" didn't make the cut over "Pan And Broom" specifically, even if it seems like they like that song a lot more than I do.

 

something about what Conor said in that article linked above made me think they were underprepared for going out as soon as these last few shows. they didn't sound like it at all to me though.

he mentioned that they were not initially planning on hitting any of the previously scheduled dates or something but the promoter really encouraged them to and they caved. wonder how that impacted the set list choice.

 

From the press stuff and performances last year, it seemed like they had a lot of these songs planned for the original tour. I imagine the biggest change from that was probably incorporating an extra song or two from Down In The Weeds.

 

I thought they did a great job incorporating as much as they could in 90 mins or so, but yeah maybe one or two swaps i would have made.

 

There are far more substantial tracks on this besides Pan & Broom, but that track is one of my top three off this release. something about it hit so right while quarantined.

 

Tonight’s show was very interesting given the fact that a) Bright Eyes has never played in Charlottesville before (surprising!) and b) we only had a two-song encore, as opposed to a lot of the other stops that had a three-song encore.
They almost didn’t play Method Acting tonight, but ended up doing it anyway, so that was cool.

 

Still thinking about how awe struck I was seeing them on this past tour.

 

just realized this is from a few years back but this must be first time on digital. Either way, both covers are great

 

Still prefer the Middle Brother version of Million Dollar Bill but all 3 versions out there now are excellent.