I trollied myself downtown and hooked up with an Owl City concert last night.
Adam's vocals were rough and stringy, the synth tones were flat, I was squished suffocated in a knot of rampant teenagers two yards away from center stage and the poster on the wall commanded that I leave my camera in the car.
And it was perfect. :)
The crowd was made up of a lovely variety of people, some who had traveled across state lines in order to be there that night, at a no-name bar with peeling paint in the ghetto point of Phoenix. The show-up was small, and I was educated in the art of worming one's way through a mass of fellow fans in order to get nearer to the action.
It is such a...magical (for lack of a better word) thing to watch and listen to a performance done live by someone who, prior to then, you'd only watched and listened to via Google Chrome. I had a handful of moments in which I caught myself smiling, if only because "That guy really exists. He's living and breathing, no longer a bunch of pixels on my computer screen."
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| Owl City's tour group. (because a one-man band is kind of hard to pull off when going live) Left to right: Steve Goold, Adam Young, Daniel Jorgensen, Breanne Duren, and Jasper Nephew |
11:00 PM found us standing, about to go home, in a nearly-empty alley/parking lot. Their tour bus was situated in the corner, and it was my guess that most of the performers were either inside or away for the night. Lo and behold, a tall skinny dude with a beanie came rolling out from the bus, coasting on his long board. He drifted over to us, and there we beheld the fantastic Daniel Jorgensen (and fantastic isn't an understatement---the guy plays guitar, vibraphone, bass...and a little suppertime triangle on the side ;).
Awkwardly enough, I wasn't sure who he was until I got home and did a little internet research. >_> Remind me to know people's names next time I try to start conversations with them and their long boards.
We didn't talk much about the show, but I pretty much attempted to convince him that downtown Phoenix was not the ideal place to hang around at midnight, and the night life wasn't really worth sticking around for. Soon after that, a small swarm of fangirls walked on over and we took our leave.
Ah! But it was great. I can't remember every song, but these were among the ones that were sung---
Speed of Love
Umbrella Beach
I'm Coming After You
Dementia
Fireflies
Early Birdie
Sillohette
Metropolis
Sky Diver
Gold
I Hope You Think of Me
Take it All Away
Deer In the Headlights
Good Time
Encore:
Hello Seattle
Shooting Star
Awesome night. Made new friends, had my eardrums permanently damaged, and went home looking forward to next time.
Farewell, friends of the feather,
Kismint
