Bright Eyes x 2.

By now I'm sure you guys have read about me being excited to go see Bright Eyes two nights in a row. And now that I have crossed that off my list of things to do... I feel like I owe it to you to write about my experience. Okay so I guess I should start by explaining the ticket incident and how I got tickets to two shows within 24 hours of one another. I originally had planned on going to see Bright Eyes with Patrick on Thursday in Asheville at the Civic Center (where I saw Conor play last year with Josh and Drew1). Patrick bought tickets for that and everything was fine until he realized that the concert was on the same day as the last Wake Football homegame against Miami so to remedy this issue I told him I could just get us some tickets to the show by my house the day after at DAR Constitution Hall in DC and just make a weekend out of it. Afterall, the Andy Warhol exhibit is on display right now in the Corcoran. Anyway, a week before the show Pat told me the Wake game had been rescheduled and we could still go to the Thursday show. So, that's what we ended up doing and Kathryn said she would come to my house for the weekend and go to the Friday show with me. So now that we're clear... I'll finally tell you about the shows.

Thursday :: Bright Eyes in Ashville, NC

I absolutely love this venue. I saw Conor play here Spring semester of last year and it was wonderful. It's a beautiful opera-like venue with the most comfortable seating imaginable. You walk in and are greeted with people selling you all types of great drinks. It was the same this year, I loved it. Pat and I were pretty stoked we had 7th row seats because he is amazing like that. The show was fantastic. I don't know what else to say. Feist is just ridiculous, I really wish I were her. Her voice has this eerie retro feel to it. Her music is very mellow... like a deep rich wine (I don't know how to explain it). It's jazzy, and makes you want to snap and act as a metronome for her live soundtrack. Her breaths inbetween the songs... all the vocalized pauses wer basically perfect. I mean this girl is just beyond words. Seriously Feist, let's swtich lives, think about it and let me know okay? Next was Conor and as usual he was extraordinary. I loved every minute of his set as did Patrick. He did a lot of stuff from Digital Ash and I'm Wide Awake. And a few of my old favorites such as The Calendar Hung Itself. He also played 3 new songs, I only caught the name of one of them which was called "Napoleon's Hat." I really enjoyed it. He said you could download it off of iTunes or buy it off of Saddle-Creek. It's on a split CD that benefits Hurricane victims. The sound quality was also great. I didn't feel like I had just gone deaf afterwards. Unfortunately, there was a harpist (Sabrina) that was supposed to play at the show and was there but tore off her toe nail and had to go to the emergency room so Conor and the band went on without her. I wouldn't have really known if they didn't bring it up. I still thought everything sounded great. It's one of those things where it's like you can't miss something you never had. I think the highlight of the show for me was the Feist-Oberst duet of the song "Mushaboom" which is a great song (download it if you have the chance). I highly recommend it. My only one complaint would be that the crowd was full of middle school wanna-be hipsters. I think I saw about 800 Conor clones with the exact same haircut and collarshirt/tie combo. Patrick and I felt really old because we were part of the 10% there that could actually vote. These kids don't even know what the guy is talking about. I mean, I don't care if you like his music, but please for my sake, listen to his music for the right reasons.

Friday :: Bright Eyes in Washington, DC

I was really excited about Bright Eyes playing in DC not only because it is my "hometown" but because he was playing at Constitution Hall. Obviously we know what his political views are and for him to play there was so symbolic. I was really excited because I knew he had something good in store. Because of ridiculous traffic on 81 due to 4 accidents and then 1 accident on 15... I didn't arrive home until the concert had already started and to make it worse, parking in DC on a Friday night is practically impossible so we ended up missing the first two openers. The one I missed on Thursday and Feist. I felt really bad because I really wanted Kathryn to experience Feist but I guess there will be other tours right? Anyway, we got there during the set change and made it just in time to catch Mr.Oberst. The first song was "Sunrise, Sunset," and the harpist was able to play and it was just astounding. It sounded phenomenal. I wish Patrick could have experienced it with the harp because I think it did make it 10 times better. Anyway, he didn't play as much of his new stuff so I didn't have to sit through the same set two days in a row which I was very thankful for. During one of his songs he invited people to waltz and a bunch of people did. It was really beautiful watching thousands of people waltzing up and down the asiles in Constitution Hall mind you. Kathryn and I looked at each other and we were just like "damn, wish we could have brought some guys with us." This went on for a few minutes until security made everyone sit down. Yeah I know, jerks. Anyway, the show was great, my friend Erik came up from Tech to go see it so we met up with him which was a lot of fun. The show was great. The crowd (thank goodness) was not filled with angsty hipsters but rather people of voting age and people who actually cared about what was said. Well I mean, what would you expect in a city like DC? It was great. My only complaint in regards to this show was that it was a little loud and I don't know if that's just because we we had awesome seats (again) and we were just closer to the speakers or if it really was ridiculously loud. I'm thinking it was the latter. It didn't ruin the experience for me by any means, I just don't like walking out of concerts and not being able to hear properly for an hour or so. Other than that, I had a really good time, picked up the Fiest CD (which you should do too if you get a chance, or stick it on your Holiday list) and the Live Bright Eyes CD which is good too. I'm really glad I went two days in a row.