Bright Eyes with First Aid Kit at the Palladium, Dallas, 9/15/11

I was on my way down to Dallas, having scheduled an interview and three days of non-stop rock'n'roll in Austin, which I was unwilling to be deterred from, despite the onset of a horrendous upper respiratory infection. Luckily for me, Bright Eyes was also on their way to the festival and stopped through Dallas to play a Thursday night show at the Palladium on the last night First Aid Kit was sharing their stage.

First Aid Kit is a Swedish folk duo made up of sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg. They're 21 and 18 respectively, and have been recording for four years already. Their music is harmony-heavy and their lyrics thoughtful (and in English, in case you were wondering where I'd picked up Swedish). Johanna sings the main vocals and plays a guitar while Klara usually takes the harmonies and accompanies Johanna with a harp or a keyboard. They played the show in nearly-matching black 'N Sync and Spice Girls t-shirts, circa '99, which you shouldn't take as any kind of hint of what their music sounds like, but might indicate something about their lighthearted performance. I can tell you that between First Aid Kit and Tallest Man on Earth, I'm pretty impressed with the Swedish folk scene.

At the end of their set, the band announced they were going to play the title track off of their upcoming record, to be produced by Mike Mogis, and they invited Bright Eyes onto the stage. First Aid Kit and their drummer, along with Conor, Mike and Nate, played "King of the World" -- a track so strangely catchy that I can't stop watching the video I recorded of it (which is embedded below. I apologize for the distance/zoom fail). I can't wait for the album to drop so I can have a studio version, but this one is great, too -- perhaps helped by Mike Mogis's mandolin, Nate Walcott's trumpet solo, and Conor's take on the third verse and chorus, but mostly because these girls are seriously talented. I've not been as excited about an opening act in a long time, and I was extraordinarily pleased to have caught them before the end of the tour. If you're into (American-style) folk music at all, you should check them out. I'm really enjoying their album The Big Black and the Blue, and I can't wait for next year's release.



The Bright Eyes set was great, and somewhat more politically charged than usual. Conor applauded First Aid Kit and implored the crowd not to hold their socialism against them. There was a "fuck Rick Perry" stint that went over surprisingly well in a Dallas crowd, though the sample is definitely biased toward teenagers and twenty-somethings willing to listen to Bright Eyes (and their political leanings are kind of hard to miss).

The set was great, if particularly smarmy, and included two of my favorite cuts from Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)" and "I Believe in Symmetry." It sounded, from the choice of songs and introductions, as if they're getting pretty tired of the tour -- the expressions about traveling and playing music were all pretty jaded. "Trees Get Wheeled Away" sounded great, despite the sad introduction ("And for our next trick, we're going to play this song with the illusion of sincerity.") Some depressing lyrical changes occurred in "Landlocked Blues" ("I feel more like a stranger every time I get to go home, so I'm making a deal with the devils of fame, saying 'Show me the money! Show me the money!' That's what this is really all about.") "Another Travelin' Song" reflected the same kinds of attitude.

"Spring Cleaning" was an interesting addition, an older track from the Bright Eyes/Neva Dinova split record One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels that was re-released with some new recordings in late 2010. It started with Conor alone on the piano, which is strikingly different from the guitar and richer, much steadier vocals of Neva Dinova's Jake Bellows. I'm always surprised when there aren't more live versions from the Neva Dinova split, since Conor has been heard to say that EP is his favorite from his own catalog.

The encore started with a fantastic collaboration between First Aid Kit and Bright Eyes on "Lua," followed by a great cover of a beautiful Gillian Welch song called "Wrecking Ball" that I'd never given much thought to before, filled with references to the Grateful Dead and other music legends. Next was "Road to Joy," a cacophonous riot of a song that never fails to get people dancing and screaming, and this time included no fewer than five drummers on stage. That was followed by a short and emphatic speech about respect and the golden rule (which Conor adds applies especially to immigrants of all kinds, to a mostly unresponsive Texas crowd). Lastly, "One for You, One for Me," the closing track on the new album, which works especially well with the message in part because it fades out to a faux scientologist discussing love and mercy. I still have mixed feelings about the track, and especially about Denny Brewer's scientology bit, but it works nicely after the chaos of "Road to Joy," its two synchronized drum kits and formulaic lyrics restoring order.

I left happy. And thirsty.
And at 5:50 a.m., I was up and on the road to Austin.