Bright Eyes on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Each year I get this strange feeling, one that leave me feeling as though I have to give a certain type of band “another try.” That type of band: Bright Eyes, Death Cab, even to some degree the likes of Final Fantasy. This yearly fascination comes in the form of a “how can so many people like them while I don’t” moment. While browsing around I found this recent Bright Eyes performance on Leno and immediately the thought struck – I should probably give him another try. And to my delight, I didn’t hate it. It wasn’t as much as it was a great performance as it was that for the first time I could say that I didn’t hate what I heard and/or saw.
This past Friday night I attended a ritual get together of friends for this season’s kick off of The Mad Ripple Hootenanny. After a young boy closed the show, local wordsmith Stook took his trademark yellow tuque off and placed it on the boy’s head, leading the night’s ring leader Jim Walsh to comment on how that reminded him of “that thing with Springsteen and Bright Eyes.” Without a moment’s thought Stook shot back, “yeah, but pretty much most of Bright Eyes sucks.” While I agree wholeheartidly, here’s a piece that doesn’t. And to my friend Stook, keep livin’ the luxury brown.
