Last Wednesday, April 9, indie rock band Bright Eyes performed at The Agora as part of their 2025 North American tour. The band released their tenth studio album, “Five Dice, All Threes,” this past September and has been touring across Canada and America to promote it ever since. Known for their emotionally charged lyrics and poetic songwriting, Bright Eyes has continued to solidify their legacy as one of the great emo bands of the 2000s with the release of their last album. With a career stretching nearly thirty years, they have clearly proven themselves to be longstanding. But does this musical talent translate to the stage? I would say only mostly. While lead singer Conor Oberst does appear to be awkward at times, especially considering his thirty years of stage experience, his passion and motivation for music is still clear. Plus, he has a genuine friendship with his bandmates, regularly giving them shout-outs during the concert.

I must admit that this was a bit of a “revenge concert” for me. Allow me to elaborate—in early 2022, I was ready to start going to concerts again after the long, seemingly never-ending COVID-19 pandemic, a feeling I am sure many of us can relate to. I bought tickets to a Bright Eyes concert, considering they had been one of my favorite bands since middle school and had recently released a new album (Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was). After playing three songs poorly, Oberst keeled over, vomited onto the stage and ran off. The rest of the band awkwardly tried to coax him out from backstage and then played karaoke for an hour before everyone left. Needless to say, the entire audience got refunds. So, in a way, by attending my second Bright Eyes concert (if you can count the first), I was avenging past me by actually getting to see one of my favorite bands perform. I jokingly told the friend I dragged along, “If they get through more than three songs, this will be better than the last concert.” Luckily for everyone, Bright Eyes put on a redeemable performance, and I have mentally forgiven them. Now let’s move on from my self-wallowing and cover the actual event. 

Bright Eyes is a band proudly from Nebraska and usually has other groups from the state open for them. They’ve had the Nebraska-based band Cursive as the opening act for the duration of their current tour, who played for roughly an hour. Cursive’s songs lyrically and musically resemble that of Bright Eyes, which makes sense as that’s probably what their main audience enjoys. Right before Bright Eyes took the stage, the venue lowered a nicely decorated banner reading, “you are now at a Bright Eyes concert” that had a cute, illustrated piano behind it. The setlist was eighteen tracks long, with three of those tracks making up the encore. I found the concert to be a good mix of their songs that everyone knows from the 2000s, along with songs from their newest album. I left the concert having heard most of my favorites.

While there were no fancy costume changes, which I did not expect from a group of middle-aged men, to my delight, there were a variety of instruments. The band had people playing the bass, banjo, trumpet, keyboard, electric cello and triangle. I learned not only that an electric cello existed, but also what they look like! The Agora’s lighting was also spectacular and would frequently pulse with the beat and tempo of whatever song was being played. The overall production of the concert was impressive. 

Oberst did engage with the crowd and seemed grateful that everyone was there. I always feel a bit awkward when the performer completely ignores the audience, which was a camp I was afraid he might fall into. He also made numerous political statements, which I completely expected from a man who made his career off writing songs denouncing the Iraq War in the early 2000s. But I always appreciate an artist who takes a stance, and the rest of the audience certainly did too. I had a good time and am very glad that I will finally be able to get over my petty spiteful grudge against the band from 2022.