Win Tickets ($70): Owl City, Augustana @ Crystal Ballroom | Alt-Pop
We are giving away a pair of tickets to Owl City, Augustana @ Crystal Ballroom on September 29. To win, comment below on this post why you’d like to attend. Winner will be drawn and emailed September 25.
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From our sponsors:
Owl City
Augustana
September 29, 2023
Doors 6PM, Show 7:30PM |
$29.50 ADV, $35 Doors, $39.50 21+ Reserved Balcony
More info: crystalballroompdx.com
Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St, Portland, OR 97209
Since first breaking onto the alt-pop scene in 2007, Owl City has built a global following on the strength of his heart-on-sleeve songwriting and endlessly inventive sound. Along with earning a monumental hit with the diamond-certified “Fireflies”-a 2009 release that reached No. 1 in 26 countries-the Minnesota-bred artist otherwise known as Adam Young has made waves with smash singles like the double-platinum “Good Time” feat. Carly Rae Jepsen and brought his exuberant live set to sold-out shows around the world. With total album sales of over three million and single sales surpassing 20 million globally, Owl City has now delivered a highly anticipated new album called Coco Moon: a wildly imaginative body of work revealing his deepened devotion to the strange magic of creativity.
“The goal with this new music was to get back to how I felt when I wrote my first song alone in my bedroom when I was 18 years old,” Young says of Coco Moon, Owl City’s seventh full-length effort and the follow-up to his powerhouse 2018 album Cinematic. “It was this very pure, euphoric moment when I realized that I could immediately be transported into another world that I’d made myself. I had no agenda beyond creating that feeling-it’s why I got started making music, and it’s what I want to keep fighting to attain.”
Raised in the small town of Owatonna, Young first began dreaming up Owl City’s emotionally charged form of electronic pop in his parents’ basement in his early 20s, and soon went viral with his sweetly surrealist hit single “Hello Seattle.” Not long after landing a record deal and making his major-label debut with 2009’s chart-topping, platinum-selling Ocean Eyes, he achieved meteoric success with the album’s lead single “Fireflies”-a heavy-hearted yet effervescent track channeling the kind of wide-eyed wonder that brightens our own outlook. “For me ‘Fireflies’ was just this random song that I really loved, but it ended up connecting with people in a massive way,” says Young. “It’s something I didn’t expect or even hope for, but it’s the coolest feeling to know that a song I made means that much to people.” Over the coming years, Owl City turned out widely beloved albums like 2012’s The Midsummer Station (featuring “Good Time” as well as collaborations with the likes of blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and hitmaking production duo Stargate) and Mobile Orchestra (a 2015 effort that found him joining forces with Aloe Blacc, Hanson, Jake Owen, and others).
Naming legendary film-score composer John Williams among his longtime influences, Young has embraced a certain thoughtful grandeur in the making of Coco Moon. To that end, songs like “The Tornado” set their ultra-vivid storytelling against a majestic sonic backdrop, ultimately lending a larger-than-life quality to the most intimate expression. “‘The Tornado’ came from wanting to invent a story rather than write something autobiographical, and it turned into a story of a kid who’s delivering papers when a horrible storm starts up and forces him to take cover so he won’t get swept away,” explains Young. Partly inspired by the childlike poetry of Shel Silverstein, the string-accented track slowly unfolds as a life-affirming epic, encompassing an entire movie’s worth of thrilling drama in just four-and-a-half minutes. Meanwhile, on “Adam, Check Please,” Owl City shares a profoundly personal coming-of-age tale, amplifying its wistful mood with a bold assemblage of sonic details: ethereal textures, skittering beats, vocals layered to spellbinding effect. “On that song I wanted to pay respect to my first job, which was working at a grocery store in high school,” Young says. “I remember being overwhelmed but also so excited, and looking back now I see that it really taught me to stretch beyond my comfort zone.”
In creating Coco Moon, Young has deliberately carved out his own quiet refuge from the chaos of the outside world. “I’ve been spending a lot of time reading and going for walks in nature, which helps me to stay focused on what’s important instead of getting caught up in the craziness of social media,” he notes. And with all of Owl City’s output, he hopes to provide his audience with a similar sense of solace and clarity. “After a hard day or week or even season of life, one of my favorite things is to put on my headphones and zone out on the music I love-it always feels like I’m escaping in a healthy way, and when I come back to reality I feel a little more equipped to deal with what’s difficult in life,” says Young. “Over the years I’ve had people tell me that my songs have done the same thing for them, and that’s really given me a sense of purpose. To me there’s no greater honor than to hear that my music might be a place people can go to feel uplifted, and to contrast the darkness of the world with something more hopeful and positive.”
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I had no idea Augustana was back! Have to go to this!
Please let me winnnn! Owl city 🫶🏽😘😍💗💗💗💗 Just a Hawaii girl trying to live in a bigger world! I still like to make myself belieeeeeve that planet earth turns slowwwwwlyyyyy
I’ve always loved Augustana! Please let me win tickets!
These bands are so, so great! Would love to introduce my teenager to them!
Owl City and Augustana were the soundtrack to my high school, this would be so fun!
Owl city! 🦉
Oh this sounds like a nice date night!! I’m in….
Both Owl City and Augustana are bringing two very different sides of my high school music obsessions together! Gotta see them both
I love their music! This would be a blast to the past. I would love to go!
Owl is my animal sign! 🦉
My daughter loves Owl City! Definitely need to get her to this show! ❤️
Hi It’s my Birthday month. I hope to be sent to all September’s events. Love and peace. P
Owl city! I would love to attend this show! I’ve never seen them live, but I’ve been a fan since Fireflies.
I love the Crystal Ball room!
owl city?! this takes me wayyy back. i would love to see them live.
Ahhhh what a fun throw back! This would be such a rad time!!
Love Augustana 🥰🎶
Augustana and Owl City? FUN! I wanna win~
This music is so chill and atmospheric! I’d love to go. Oooooohhh What to wear!
I wanna see them so bad!
Owl City was my entire childhood! Let me cry and revel in not paying taxes for one night!
It would be awesome to see them!
Sounds very fun
Count me in, love owl city!
Fireflies! Good time! Pick me please!
A blast from the past. Nice double bill.
Would be a show to remember!!!
This show is going to be so rad!
Oooh can I go? Pleaaaase!
Owl city lyrics make me swoon.
and PDX Pipeline ->Thanks for helping me find places to send my resume in PDX.
Pick me 👋🏻 Pick me 👋🏻 I wanna go!
Wow! I would love to attend this concert because in middle school I listened to Owl City every night as I went to sleep. The electronic beats calmed me down. Would love to see it!!!!
I love both of these bands! I would simply love to be able to go to this show. I’ve never been to a concert at The Crystal Ballroom and would love for this to be my first.
This would be an interesting show – I’d like to see if the music holds up! 😁
Would love to surprise my spouse with this nostalgic evening!
Um I’m a millennial and it’s Owl City. Need I say more?
Such great music!
Great combo, love to see this show!
I’d be so grateful to win tickets and bring my boyfriend! We love relaxing to their music
this would be such a fun concert!
I would love to take my 16 year old son to this concert. Fireflies is still such a bop, and I have memories of us singing it together in the car when he was about 3-4.
🎶🎤
I would not believe my eyes
If much to my surprise
I got the tickets to see this show
Music filling up the air
You bet your bippy I’d be there
Like heck yeah dude, thanks Pipeline for the share
I’ve been dying to see a show at the Crystal Ballroom – and Owl City is the perfect nostalgia for me! This would be a great date night for me and my partner.
The Owl!!!… and Alll these bands!!!= great night!
Had such a good time with my daughter when she was in high school with their music!
Well shake my Augustana tree and flush out an owl, I’d love to go see this duo!
This takes me back to high school!! I’d love to go
Let me relive my middle school days!!
Hoo hoo MF.
Some people wanna go to Funkytown. I want to go to Owl City. 🦉
Yeah- me and my brother need to go!! Please!!
This would be a fun blast from the past!