Bright Eyes Showcase New Material at SXSW AOL Pop-Up Show

In what was easily the most in-demand and hotly anticipated show of AOL's SXSW Pop-Up series to date, Bright Eyes performed a very special, intimate show on Friday (March 18) for a lucky crowd of just a few hundred. The location? The Austin Club -- a wedding-and-bar mitzvah kind of swanky banquet hall just a few blocks away from the madness of Austin's 6th Street on a Friday night... in the midst of SXSW and spring break, no less.

"This is fun," ring leader Conor Oberst told the audience, many of whom waited in line for hours on the street, vying for a coveted spot inside. "You guys ever been to the haunted mansion at Disney Land?" he asked, eerily summing up the chandelier-adorned setting. "Very soon these walls will start stretching -- into the stratosphere."

And, metaphorically, perhaps they did. Backed by a six-piece multi-instrumental band -- aka Bright Eyes -- Oberst showcased new material from the group's brand new album, 'The People's Key.' That much was expected -- but he also reached into Bright Eyes' revered canon for such catalog classics as 'Bowl of Oranges' and 'Poison Oak.'

Tellingly, the new songs drew as much applause as the old ones. And while Bright Eyes doesn't necessarily seem like the kind of group to come to SXSW just to play the part of some kind of product-promoting machine, Oberst ingeniously managed to do just that while simultaneously rising above it all.

"This next song is about trying to not become a cynical as----e," he said, sincerely, in introducing 'Beginner's Mind' -- a track from the new release. "Tall order, I guess. But SXSW is a good place to explore that, because you have the greenest of the green and the [most poisoned] of the poisoned, walking next to each other."

True that. And yet, Bright Eyes, somehow, was able to transcend both of those categories, opting instead to deliver the same blood-and-guts performance that made them famous to begin with. For those fortunate enough to make it inside, it was worth the wait, indeed.

Watch Bright Eyes Perform at SXSW 2011

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