Conor Oberst will return to the road with Bright Eyes this fall, beginning Oct. 22 at the Santa Barbara Bowl in Santa Barbara, Calif. Whereas Bright Eyes’ spring/summer tour found Oberst backed by the Faint and largely performing material from the electronica-shaded album “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn,” the upcoming month-long outing will return to a more traditional lineup and set list.
“Digital Ash” was simultaneously released in January with the rootsier “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.” The Saddle Creek sets have sold a combined 484,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
“It’s kind of a practical thing to do it this way,” Oberst previously told Billboard.com of the different tours. “It wouldn’t make sense, in terms of equipment and people, to play the songs from both albums at the same time. It’d be a logistical nightmare. So we decided we’d basically go on tour twice and play the same places.”
As part of the tour, Bright Eyes will also play Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit, set for Oct. 29-30 in Mountain View, Calif.
Oberst and Bright Eyes play a major role in the history of Saddle Creek, the first 10 years of which will be chronicled on the upcoming DVD “Spend an Evening With Saddle Creek.” The film is due Aug. 23 via Plexifilm.
In related news, Oberst’s Team Love label has signed former Shudder To Think frontman Craig Wedren, and will release his solo debut,
