Photos from the Obama rally show at the Slowdown featuring Secret Life of Sparrows, Jim Ward, Bright Eyes, M. Ward and Jim James can be found here, taken by Omaha photographer Kayla Benker.

Today (technically yesterday) was a busy day. I went straight from teaching to pick Kyle up and head downtown to the Civic Auditorium to attend a Barack Obama rally.

Bright Eyes, Jim James and M. Ward played a few songs at the opening of the rally. Then we waited awhile for Barack to come onstage (he was an hour late) and then he spoke for about an hour. We arrived at 3:30 and left at 7, at which time I had to head straight to Slowdown and stand in a long line in the freezing cold to get into the free Barack Obama rally show with, again, Bright Eyes, Jim James, M. Ward and Jim Ward of Sparta and Secret Life of Sparrows. The show was awesome. Basically an all star band that sounded really good and we got to hear about 5 great bands for free and Jason Boesel was drumming. I’m too tired to describe any of this in any detail whatsoever, except to say it was a great and exhausting day.

Photos below. I took some videos too, so maybe I’ll post some more on the rally/show tomorrow. And I have photos from Florida yet to post. I’m getting behind!

I meant to post this earlier, but here is a link to Pitchfork’s write-up on the Bright Eyes show and photos by Omaha-based Paparazzi by Appointment (including the one featured above).

Near the end of True Blue:

I saw Bright Eyes tonight at the intimate bar/venue The Waiting Room – thanks to Cynthia who skillfully procured the hard-to-get tickets. The show was pretty amazing. It’s too late (or too early) to write about it in any articulate or even cohesive way. Simon Joyner and Flowers Forever opened — sadly, I missed most of Flowers’ set, but enjoyed what I did see and Simon Joyner sounded good tonight too. Bright Eyes set list photo below.