Bright Eyes to be backed by orchestra at Hollywood Bowl

Posted September 27th, 2007 by eric

Bright Eyes performed “Four Winds” on Jay Leno last night. I’d forgotten how painful it was to sit through Jay Leno, awaiting a musical guest. He’s still ripping off Howard Stern in the un-funniest possible ways. It’s also still somewhat surreal for me to watch indie rock bands on The Tonight Show. I know Bright Eyes is no longer the stuff of word of mouth, evidenced by the fact that Conor Oberst and his bandmates are playing the Hollywood Bowl backed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Longtime Bright Eyes contributor Nate Walcott wrote the 60-piece orchestral score for the band’s 17,300-seat gig, which has to hammer home the whole idea of “making it.” Walcott spent the past eight months composing the score for “40 strings, 11 brass and 12 woodwinds”, while on tour, which is no small feat, telling Billboard, “It was the biggest project I’ve ever worked on as far as arranging is concerned…it’s almost music math.” The band has no orchestral concerts planned beyond this Saturday’s show, but it wouldn’t take too much time to throw one together anywhere in the world, as Walcott points out: “These orchestras don’t rehearse. They just show up and read it.”

Tags: news

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 bill // Oct 13, 2007 at 4:05 pm

    Has anyone heard any news about this show possibily being released as an album? It was such a wonderful night it would be great to have it recorded.