Bright Eyes cancel concerts timed to new album 'on the advice of doctors'

"Five Dice, All Threes" is still set for release on Sept. 20, but the band is rescheduling three performances timed to it.

There's a new album coming this week from seminal indie rock band Bright Eyes, but the band won't be playing any shows timed to the release in the wake of unexpected health issues for founder and frontman Conor Oberst.

"We’re heartbroken to announce that our upcoming record release shows have been canceled," reads a statement posted to Bright Eyes' Instagram account. "The warm up shows we played earlier this week resulted in Conor losing his voice and, on the advice of doctors, we’ve made the difficult but sensible decision to prioritize rest and recuperation for the remainder of the month."

Bright Eyes' newest album Five Dice, All Threes is still set for release on Friday, Sept. 20. To promote it, the band had previously announced a massive North American tour of more than 40 dates, beginning this month and running through April 2025. For now, they say that only three performances have been canceled (Sept. 19 in New York City, Sept. 21 at Chicago's RiotFest, and Sept. 22 in Omaha) and that "we're working hard to reschedule those dates."

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Although the band's official statement cites a need for Oberst to rest his voice, some concerned fans think there's more at work. In a video posted to Twitter by the account Common Revolt from a Bright Eyes show in Ohio earlier this week, Oberst appears visibly intoxicated as he makes uncomfortable jokes about suicide from the stage.

"Alright, the sound of my voice is so f---ed up, but I'm gonna take care of it," Oberst said, his words slurring. "Probably not, but I'm gonna kill myself." After another member of the band turned to whisper to him, Oberst continued, "apparently I'm not supposed to say that from the stage. I'm not gonna kill myself! That's over."

Representatives for the band did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for additional comment on the situation.

Related: Bright Eyes and Phoebe Bridgers reunite for new song to raise money for Planned Parenthood

Oberst originally founded Bright Eyes in 1998, with their lo-fi debut album A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995–1997 setting a standard for long album titles that they've mostly followed ever since. The band's big cultural breakthrough came with the dual release of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (which boasts their most popular song, "First Day of My Life") and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn on Jan. 25, 2005.

Multi-instrumentalists Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott joined Oberst in 2006, but Bright Eyes has gone on occasional hiatuses ever since when the members split to pursue different projects like Monsters of Folk (which found Oberst and Mogis teaming with other indie-folk artists like M. Ward and Jim James) and Better Oblivion Community Center (which paired Oberst with then-rising star Phoebe Bridgers).

Bright Eyes reformed in 2020 with their album Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was. Writing for Entertainment Weekly at the time, Leah Greenblatt described Oberst as "a sort of Swiss Army knife of indie rock — a one-man juggernaut constantly moving between various bands and genres."

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.

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