Bright Eyes - 9:30 Club in D.C.

What a great show. What a long drive. I felt old last night as I drove the 2+ hours to the 9:30 Club for an hour and a half show and then made the late-night trek back home - fueled by mini-tastykake chocolate donuts.

Bright Eyes played mostly new tracks - from the Four Winds EP released officially today, and the forthcoming full length offering, Cassadaga. M. Ward joined the band on stage about 5 songs into the set and stayed up there for the rest of the evening. A really awesome surprise for us, since we are huge fans of Mr. Ward.

Conor and Matt traded verses as they played a cut of his, "Lullabye & Exile", from the Transistor Radio record. The band also faithfully covered John Prine's "Crazy as a Loon" from his excellent Fair & Square disc, in addition to a Neva Divona tune.

One of the highlights of the night was a rockin' new track called "Soul Singer in a Session Band"

Good thing we saw them last night, as the big Bright Eyes tour in support of Cassadaga is not stopping in Philly and the seven consecutive New York dates (wow!) are straddling our due date for #2.

Check a video for "Four Winds" here.

It was the second show we have seen in the last four days and another one where a somewhat well-known artist joined the headlining band on stage for a spell. On Friday night, we were in Philly for the Elvis Perkins in Dearland gig at the Tin Angel and Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who was seated in the first row, popped up and joined the band for a couple tracks.

By the way, if you have not checked out Elvis Perkins yet - do so now. He and his band are excellent.