Conor Oberst has remained busy over the past decade with a handful of solo albums and his recent Better Oblivion Community Center effort with Phoebe Bridgers. All the while, Oberst has given many a performance in promotion of these endeavors. One thing he hasn’t done in some time, though, is perform with his recently reunited Bright Eyes, who have been active lately and just officially announced a new album.
The band’s most recent show was at Honolulu’s Hawaii Theatre in November 2011, and they haven’t performed together since then. They changed that last night, though, when they gave their first performance in almost a decade on The Late Show.
For the performance, the band chose “Mariana Trench,” the new single they released alongside the recent album announcement. The performance took place in a studio with all three band members and others present for a nicely filmed, multiple-camera presentation.
At least some individual parts may have been filmed separately, though, as there seem to be some slight continuity errors when transitioning between shots (like at around 3:30 into the video, when one shot shows backing singers in one part of the room, and the next shot of Oberst singing in front of that same area doesn’t feature the singers behind him). Either way, this was pulled off in a nice and mostly seamless way.
Watch Oberst and company perform “Mariana Trench” above.