Though he’s been prolifically making music with a whole host of projects for more than 30 years (despite only being in his mid-40s), from solo work to short-lived emo outfit Commander Venus to cult punk band Desaparecidos to indie pop gem Park Ave. to folk supergroup Monsters of Folk to Phoebe Bridgers team-up Better Oblivion Community Center, there is, perhaps, no other Conor Oberst project as renowned or enduring as Bright Eyes. Undoubtedly the group that first introduced him to a wider audience- especially if you’re a millennial who was dialed into the indie and emo scene of the 2000s- Bright Eyes began as something a solo moniker for Conor’s intimate folk songs in the ’90s, before morphing into a full-fledged folk and rock band by the 2000s, propelling the Omaha, Nebraska native to indie acclaim with lauded early efforts like 2000 third LP Fevers and Mirrors and 2002 followup Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground, before a pair of records released on the same day, in 2005- the folk-oriented I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and electronic leaning Digital Ash in a Digital Urn– catapulted Bright Eyes into the mainstream. A few more prolific years would follow, before the band- formally rounded out by multi-instrumentalists Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott- embarked on something of hiatus after 2011’s The People’s Key, spending nearly a decade focusing on other projects, during which time Oberst released numerous solo LPs, reunited Desaparecidos, formed Better Oblivion, and continued to regularly tour.
While, functionally, Oberst’s solo stuff always felt like an extension of Bright Eyes’ catalogue, there always still seemed to be a nostalgia for that moniker from fans, and, finally, after nearly a decade apart, the group announced their official return at the start of 2020. Unfortunately, as with many other ill-timed reunions from early that year, Covid put some of their immediate plans on hold, but the band still dropped an album- their first in nine years- that summer, Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was, and resumed touring in 2021. Since then, they’ve stayed active, reissuing their prior discography through new label home Dead Oceans and continuing to regularly perform live, and kept the momentum going with a new album (their tenth or 11th depending on how you count them) in 2024, Five Dice, All Threes, met with enthusiastic acclaim and featuring some excellent guests like Cat Power and The National’s Matt Berninger, with a companian EP, Kids Table, dropping a year later. Bright Eyes were on the road for much of last year, including a stop at The Cavenrs in nearby Pelham, and recently played some anniversary shows for Wide Awake and Digital Ash.
Returning to Nashville proper for the first time in four years, Oberst and co. are set to headline Brooklyn Bowl tonight, Oct. 12, with fellow Omaha indie folk outfit Lullaby for the Working Class (featuring Mogis and Cursive’s Ted Stevens, who effectively broke up in the ’90s, and hadn’t played live since a one-off reunion in 2010 until this tour). While we make no claims that Oberst’s Better Oblivion bandmate Bridgers will be in attendance, she does have a day off after her weekend shows in Nashville, and did play a Better Oblivion song during her show last night, so it might not be out of the question. Tickets are available right here while they last!
Bright Eyes and Lullaby for the Working Class perform tonight, Oct. 12 at Brooklyn Bowl. The show is 18+, begins at 7:30 p.m. (doors at 6:30 p.m.), and tickets are available for $81.45.
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