Bright Eyes Plays Glass House, Throws No Stones
By Liz Rodriguez
Managing Editor
For someone so contemptuous-of, well, everything-it's pretty cool of Bright Eyes to come play in the Inland Empire. When they played at the Glass House in Pomona last semester, lead singer and indie wunderkind Conor Oberst told the band it was a special occasion: "It's my birthday, and there's no place in the world I'd rather be than . . . Pomona!"

Although the sarcasm in his comment couldn't be more apparent, Oberst and his friends actually have a long relationship with the area. In 2000, Bright Eyes played at a KSPC Blowout in the Smith Campus Center, and the band has stopped at the Glass House on most of their national tours since.

The band played an unexpected concert to a sold-out Glass House this past Friday, and their performance showed that Bright Eyes is quickly living up to the critical acclaim that has been bestowed on them lately.

While the band is named Bright Eyes, the band composition is fluid; the only constant is Oberst. The other band members are Oberst's friends and Saddle Creek label-mates who mostly hail from Omaha, Nebraska.

In its various incarnations, Bright Eyes has been releasing albums since 1997 to mixed reviews; while in the past many critics consider his melancholic lyrics and quavering vocals pretentious, forced, or simply annoying, one of his most recent albums Lifted, or The Story is in The Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground garnered rave reviews from the New York Times, who compared Oberst to a young Bob Dylan.

Bright Eyes' performance last weekend was impressive enough to convert all but their harshest critics. Flouting the customary timeline of touring immediately after releasing an album, Bright Eyes wasn't trying to promote a single thing besides some $10 concert t-shirts. This gave the band the luxury to play both old favorites and some brand-new material.

Although Oberst wasn't terribly talkative, he seemed assured during his performance and performed some of his older songs with a rare zeal. Rather than reveling in his usual grief, Oberst's anger came through in his performance of "Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh" and made the entire song even more heartbreaking to listen to: "But now we speak with ruined tongues / And the words we speak aren't meant for anyone . . . but there was once you / You said you hate my suffering / And you understood / And you'd take care of me / Well,where are you now?"

Oberst's new songs showed a promising direction for the future of Bright Eyes. Although Oberst's side-project band, The Desaparecidos, sings about consumerism and politics, Bright Eyes has always tended more towards self-involved and perhaps narcissistic topics. In the last album and during the concert, Oberst conveyed his political opinions in his songs.

One of the most poignant moments of the night was during a new song, when he was singing about watching television war coverage and how he "swore [he] could hear them say / If we walk away, they'll walk away." As diverse as the crowd was, it was touching seeing hundreds of kids stop and applaud Oberst's idealistic comment on the war with Iraq. If 22-year-old Oberst really is the new Bob Dylan, it's hard to imagine how great Oberst will become as his musical style grows and matures.

Of course, Oberst excelled at doing what he does best: singing about breakups and heartaches in a strangely comforting way.

There was an instant recognition by the crowd when the opening chords of "The Calendar Hung Itself" were played and Oberst sang: "Does he walk around all day at school with his feet inside your shoes? / Looking down every few steps to pretend he walks with you. / Does he know that place below your neck that is your favorite to be touched and does he cry through broken sentences like 'I love you far too much?' / Does he lay awake listening to your breath? Worried that you smoke too many cigarettes?"

That's about as classic Bright Eyes as you can get.