throwback thursday: bright eyes

I saw Conor Oberst here in Austin this week.

The show was good despite the fact that people STILL scream out “I love you, Conor!!!!!!” Ugh. Those people are so fuckin annoying. Luckily people started screaming to shut that woman up. Someone even went so far as to scream “No one likes you!”

A sentiment I agreed with.

It reminded me of seeing Bright Eyes somewhere around 10 or so years ago and making fun of people then who yelled out that they, too, love Conor. We even thought it would be funny for us to yell it out too.

We didn’t though because we’re not idiots.

Anyway, I’ve been listening to Bright Eyes for a long time now and while I don’t want to be one of those people who say they like the early stuff better, I like the early stuff better.

I think the first record I heard from them was Fevers and Mirrors. I felt at the time I was slightly too old to really get off on the angst of it but it didn’t matter. I wanted to walk around all day in school (even though I was no longer in school) wearing the shoes of the woman I was obsessed with so I could look down every few steps and pretend I was walking with her.

That sounds crazy. But man “The Calendar Hung Itself” is a real jam. Unfortunatly the only song he played off this record was “An Attempt To Tip The Scales“.

But the songs I loved were the slow heart-felt, wrenching ballads. And I still do. The way Conor can whisper some lyrics over some simple chords culminating in a scream that vibratos at the top still gets me every time.

As such my favorites are songs like “Lua“, “Going For Gold“, “Perfect Sonnet“, etc etc.

And a song screamed out for a lot two nights ago but not played, “Something Vague”.

 
Something Vague might have been the first Bright Eyes song that I loved.

Conor also does another thing that I love for bands to do. And that is when the emotion gets so high that they just HAVE to throw a ‘fuck’ in there.

It just somehow makes it even better. Okkervil River does something similar on “A Stone” as well.

I also love that Conor slightly tweeks the lyrics of his stuff live sometimes. In this song, one time i heard him change “you sink in your chair, brush the snow from your hair and drink the cold away” to “you sink in your chair, brush the snow from your hair and drink and drink and drink.”

I love shit like that.

It’s a little thing but something I really respond to for some reason. So if you’re reading this and you’re a teenager or want to be a teenager again (if even for a second) go listen to Fevers and Mirrors and also go ahead and pull out Letting Off The Happiness too.

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Dan Sharber loves Bright Eyes and Conor Oberst but would never, ever scream that out at a show.