Bright Eyes call for empathy at energetic Brooklyn Paramount show with Cursive (pics, video, setlist)

Bright Eyes were scheduled to play NYC back in September, shortly after the release of their great 2024 album Five Dice, All Threes, but they cancelled that show, and the remainder of their 2024 tour, “on the advice of doctors.” They’re back out on the road this year, though, and returned to NYC on Thursday night for a show at Brooklyn Paramount. After being out with an orchestra in support of 2020’s Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was, for this outing they’re a relatively slimmed down outfit, with Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott joined by MiWi La Lupa, Conor Elmes, and So So Glos’ Alex Levine (aka Alex Orange Drink), who Conor has said was vital to the making of the new album. He has co-writing credits on many of its songs, features on “Rainbow Overpass,” and brings a slightly ramshackle vitality to the band’s onstage energy. They’ve been on the road for much of the year, on and off (mostly on) since mid-January, and are still roaring along and firing on all four cylinders. In addition to a bunch of songs from Five Dice, Thursday night’s set list had a little from most of Bright Eyes’ albums, with I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and LIFTED or The Story Is In the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground getting the most representation. They brought out Cursive‘s Tim Kasher for “Nothing Gets Crossed Out,” and for the encore, had Omaha singer-songwriter Ted Stevens join them for a rendition of his band Lullaby for the Working Class’ song “Hypnotist (Song for Daniel H).” Oberst has never held back from talking politics, and addressing our current administration between songs he focused on the importance of empathy, protecting each other, and building locally. He described writing “Old Soul Song (for the New World Order)” about a protest he attended shortly after moving to NYC at 23, and later in the set called “One for You, One for Me” the most important song they’d play all night. Bright Eyes’ old friends Cursive, who are opening this leg of the tour, also played a career-spanning set, and brought out Oberst to join them for the mashup of their songs “The Recluse” and “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” that was recently released to benefit Bright Eyes’ new LGBTQ+ equity non-profit Poison Oak Project. See pictures and video from Thursday below, along with Bright Eyes’ setlist.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BrooklynVegan (@brooklynvegan)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BrooklynVegan (@brooklynvegan)

SETLIST: BRIGHT EYES @ BROOKLYN PARAMOUNT, 4/17/2025 Bells and Whistles El Capitan Method Acting We Are Nowhere and It’s Now Soul Singer in a Session Band Bas Jan Ader First Day of My Life Take It Easy (Love Nothing) Mariana Trench I Won’t Ever Be Happy Again Nothing Gets Crossed Out (with Tim Kasher) Tin Soldier Boy Old Soul Song (for the New World Order) Persona non grata Shell Games Tiny Suicides Rainbow Overpass The Calendar Hung Itself… One for You, One for Me Encore: At the Bottom of Everything Hypnotist (Song for Daniel H.) (Lullaby for the Working Class cover) Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (to Love and to Be Loved)