Review: Bright Eyes, Kevin Devine @ the Hi Fi
Words: Josh Bush
It’s somewhat of a rude treat to walk into Brisbane’s The Hi-Fi this steamy November evening to discover that Kevin Devine, Harvest Festival stablemate of Bright Eyes, has been added to tonight’s line up.
Brooklyn born and raised, Devine commands the stage and interest from the swelling crowd as he delves quickly into his extensive catalogue of solo acoustic tunes.
Opener “A Flatline Blur” from his 2003 sophomore album “Make The Clocks Move” sets the scene for this troubadour who could be equally at home in a smokey bar or sitting ‘round a campfire. Devine smoothly follows with “Between the Love and the Clouds” into “Another Bag of Bones”.
His appreciation of the opportunity given to him tonight is mutually shared by those far from the bar and he wraps up a short, sharp and impressive set by shouting his guts up in closer “My Brother’s Blood”.
Conor Oberst leads Bright Eyes onto the stage in front of pure adoration below, kicking straight into “Four Winds” and winding up a frenzy amongst those ageless punters who’ve waited half a decade to see this group back together on these shores.
Older tunes “Trees Get Wheeled Away” and “Something Vague” take us into the unrelenting chug of “Travelling Song” – it’s obvious that tonight is going to cover the whole gamut of this collective’s rich and deep catalogue of songs.
“Take It Easy (Love Nothing)” highlights the explosive dynamics Bright Eyes are capable of – building through a dark, atmospheric guitar and jagged rattatat into a rush of noise that lifts this track far from anything it resembles on record.
The long, lonesome trumpet leading into “Landlocked Blues” has the little hairs standing on end and as the spittle flies from Oberst’s impassioned plea for freedoms, we’re living it and pleading for them too.
The drug-addled hopelessness of “Lover I Don’t Have To Love” locks into the synth heavy “Shell Games” from the most recent release “The People’s Key”. “Time Code” gives Oberst the space to free his moves to the pseudo Afro-Caribbean backbeat and it’s this energetic dramatisation of most songs tonight that only adds to the Bright Eyes performance, keeping the 2 hour set list exciting and lively; it appears not just for Brisbane, but for the band itself.
Leading into “Fevers and Mirrors” favourite, “The Calendar Hung Itself”, Oberst admits wearily that it feels like they’ve been touring together forever and it damn well shows – the band are tight and feed off each other, providing the energy needed to prop the other up.
“Ladder Song” sees Oberst finishing the set solemnly, alone at his organ, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.
But the lights are not to be raised until Bright Eyes brings the joint down with the raucous Road To Joy. A set favourite, the extended intro is reminiscent of a Western chase scene before churning it’s way into the folk freak-out that truly fucks it up.
A tongue-in-cheek roll call of Oberst’s band members that wouldn’t be out of place at your local RSL on any given Sunday night is an unusual way to wrap up this spectacle, although final closer “One For You, One For Me” has all the young things happy, floating out into the night and beyond.