This past Saturday night, the iconic Chicago Theatre hosted a rare performance from Bright Eyes and special guest Christian Lee Hutson.

The evening kicked off with Christian Lee Hutson and his two bandmates for a set that combined indie folk songs and witty banter. Hutson’s set began with “Atheist” from his debut album, aptly called Beginners. As he began to play an unreleased song, Hutson started to give the backstory but paused and told the crowd it’d be better if he explained it afterwards. In the lyrics, he described an Instagram page that I’ve come across in real life, called “Siblings or Dating?” After wrapping up the song, Hutson informed the audience that the real Instagram page in fact inspired the song, and described the page as being one that posts random pictures of people and the premise (as you’ve probably predicted) is to guess if the pair is dating or related. Hutson also told the audience about his upcoming sophomore album called Quitters, which he joked would be his last because he’s quitting. The rest of the set contained some familiar favorites like “Get The Old Band Back Together,” which Hutson prefaced as being about “these guys I went to high school with who started a band, like sixteen years ago. But they’ve never played a gig before.” Overall, Hutson’s sound meshed really well with the forthcoming Bright Eyes set and the beautiful acoustics of the Chicago Theatre.

Between sets, excited chatter bounced around the room as fans anticipated Bright Eyes returning to the stage in Chicago. While I’ve gotten to see Conor Oberst perform with different projects in more recent years, it had been more than ten years since a Bright Eyes performance in the city. The scene was set with a massive backdrop in the form of an eye-chart that read the band’s name, and more than 15 musicians entered the stage, including Bright Eyes members alongside a strings and horns section. The show began with 2020’s “Dance and Sing,” in which Oberst fittingly performed sans instrument, and instead twirled around the stage with just his microphone. Next up, Oberst stationed himself at the piano to throw it back to the early 2000’s with their fan-favorite “Lover I Don’t Have to Love.” Throughout the set, Oberst and the band circulated around the stage, with the strings section and horns section sometimes leaving the stage entirely—but no matter what song was being performed, the live arrangements remained layered and expansive in order to provide the best live translation of the studio versions. For example, the strings section added an encompassing warmth to “Four Winds” that had the crowd listening with awe and appreciation.

Throughout most of the show itself, fans mostly remained in their seats, attentively listening or singing along to their favorite lyrics, but between songs, deafening cheers and raucous applause filled the room. During certain fan favorite songs and towards the end of the show, the audience couldn’t resist standing up out of their seats in order to further revel in the moment. The full band returned onstage for the final song before the encore, “Comet Song,” and as the tune came to a close, the band received a standing ovation from the audience.

When fans hollered for an encore, Bright Eyes obliged and returned to play “First Day of My Life” from 2005’s I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. The song is my personal favorite from Bright Eye’s catalog, as I’m sure it is to many other fans, but it hasn’t been a staple in the setlist this tour, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear it on Saturday night. One of the backing musicians also played the flute during the song, which made the moment even more special to witness. The encore wrapped up with “I Believe in Symmetry” and “One for You, One for Me.”

If you missed out on the special performance, check out the photo gallery below and see where you can catch the tour next here. Lastly, make sure you pre-order the reissues of Bright Eyes’ iconic releases here, and you can pre-order Quitters by Christian Lee Hutson here.