Win Tickets ($50): Fruit Bats @ Revolution Hall | w/ Jeffrey Silverstein, Folk Rock, Alternative
We are giving away a pair of tickets to Fruit Bats @ Revolution Hall on May 25. To win, comment below on this post why you’d like to attend. Winner will be drawn and emailed May 22.
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From our sponsors:
Fruit Bats
May 25, 2023
Doors 7PM, Show 8PM | $25 | 21+
More info: event.etix.com
Revolution Hall
1300 SE Stark St., Portland, OR
Eric D. Johnson rarely lingers at one location too long.
“There’s always been motion in my life between one place and another,” says the Fruit Bats songwriter.
As a kid growing up in the Midwest, Johnson’s family moved around a lot, but it wasn’t until he became a touring musician years later that motion became a central part of his identity. That transient lifestyle stoked an enduring reverence for the world he watched pass by through a van window.
“It weighs heavily on me—the notion of place,” Johnson says. “The places I’ve been and the places I want to go.”
A sense of place is a unifying theme he’s revisited with Fruit Bats throughout its many lives. From the project’s origins in the late ’90s as a vehicle for Johnson’s lo-fi tinkering to the more sonically ambitious work of recent years, Fruit Bats has often showcased love songs where people and locations meld into one. It’s a loose song structure that navigates what he calls “the geography of the heart.”
“The songs exist in a world that you can sort of travel from one to another,” says Johnson. “There are roads and rivers between these songs.”
Those pathways extend straight through the newest Fruit Bats album, aptly titled A River Running to Your Heart. Self-produced by Johnson—a first for Fruit Bats—with Jeremy Harris at Panoramic House just north of San Francisco, it’s Fruit Bats’ tenth full-length release. The album finds the project in the middle of a people-powered climb leading to the biggest shows, loudest accolades, and most enthusiastic new fans in Fruit Bats history! It’s hard to pinpoint a single reason for this mid-career resurgence. But after two decades of making music, hard-earned emotional maturity has clearly seeped into Johnson’s already inviting songs, resulting in a sound that’s connected with audiences like no other previous version of the band.
A River Running to Your Heart represents the fullest realization of Johnson’s creative vision to date. It’s a sonically diverse effort that largely explores the importance of what it means to be home, both physically and spiritually. And while that might seem like a peculiar focus for an artist who’s constantly in motion, for Fruit Bats, home can take many forms—from the obvious to the obscure.
Lead single “Rushin’ River Valley” is a self-propelled love song written about Johnson’s wife that clings to the borrowed imagery of the place where she grew up in northern California. Then, there’s the gentle and unfussy acoustic ballad “We Used to Live Here,” which looks back to a time of youthful promise and cheap rent. But the wistful “It All Comes Back” is perhaps the most stunning and surprising track on the album, Johnson’s production skills on full display. Built upon intricate layers of synths, keyboards, and guitars, it’s a pitch-perfect blend of tone and lyricism that taps into our shared apprehensions and hopes for a post-pandemic life.
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I’d like to go because Fruit Bats are best observed in a cavernous space with good acoustics that is out of the elements.
Love Their music and would love a date night to see them!
Aw, I absolutely love Fruit Bats and this is 5 days before my golden birthday! Would love to celebrate with this show
Oh heck yeah! I spent many summers relaying the Mouthful album. My wife and I actually had bought tickets to a show that got cancelled early in the pandemic, so this would be a great redemption show for us 😍
Checking back in to see when the winner will be announced haha. Really hoping to win this one. 🤞
I’d love to see Fruit Bats again, it’s been forever!
SO awesome!! We’d love to go!!!!
Yea. I’d love to go.
I’ve heard “When U love somebody” at 3 weddings minimum.
Would love to see them live!
My husband and I LOVE them.
I’d love to check out the show.
I haven’t seen the Fruit Bats yet in concert. I would love to win tickets to this show!
Big fan of anything Eric Johnson is involved in. I’d love to win these and join my buddy at the show!
Love the Fruit Bats! Need a night of good music!
This band was the soundtrack of my 20s, I’d love to go!
Would love to take my friend for her birthday!
They are so fun!
Would love to go to this 🤩
Just listened to their album, GREAT music! Would love to see them live.
I would love to hang out at night with the Fruit Bats at Revolution Hall!
It would be the best bday present to see the Fruit bats!
Fruit Bats probably put on a hell of a show. Yes, please!
WOULD DIE TO SEE FRUIT BATS!!!
Fruit bats are one of my favorite bands! They’re playing on my 25th birthday…on the 25th! How special would it be for me to see them :’)
Would hang upside down and gorge on mangoes all night to see them
I saw them many many moons ago, when I was in bad place, now I’m there again kinda. My friends are going to go so it would be great to join them.
Jeffrey Silverstein is the real deal! He is the perfect mix of twang and good vibes! Fruit Bats certainly make for an awesome night of music!
I’d like to go because when you love a band and bite your tongue, all you get is a mouthful of blood.
WOULD DIE TO SEE FRUIT BATS!!!