Owl City at Irving Plaza

Adam Young & Matt Thiessen

Adam Young was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, but raised in Owatonna, Minnesota, where he began composing melodies in his head while loading trucks at a shipping warehouse. Suffering from insomnia, he would come home from work and record these melodies in his studio in his parents' basement and upload the finished songs to social media under the moniker Owl City. Young compiled some of his songs first for an Owl City EP in 2007 and then a debut album in 2008, both of which received some national attention. Owl City gained mainstream popularity in 2009 with the six-time platinum single "Fireflies" and the platinum album Ocean Eyes. Owl City's sixth and most recent album, Cinematic, was released on June 1, 2018.

The stage at Irving Plaza tonight was littered with a vast array of musical instruments, all of which were played by Adam Young, even on the opening song. Throughout the evening, Young moved quickly from various synthesizers to keytar to guitar to vibraphone to drums and then back to keyboards, looping some of his riffs along the way in order to build multi-layered rhythms. Though Young established early that there was hardly a need for a band, he was accompanied by two nearly invisible musicians for part of the set, and opening act Matt Thiessen (of Relient K) dueted on vocals for the encore. The set was loaded with new songs, with Young playing 10 of the 15 songs on Cinematic, plus eight songs from previous albums. Young sang in fine voice, and his shuffling between instruments was almost acrobatic, keeping the stage show vibrant. With so many musical washes happening at once, Young's sailing melodies provided the anchor for his dense arrangements. Owl CIty's good-time brand of soft synth-pop indietronica could not have been executed any better.

Visit Owl City at www.owlcitymusic.com.

Setlist:

1. Bird with a Broken Wing
2. Verge
3. The Real World
4. Firebird
5. Cloud Nine
6. Montana
7. On the Wing
8. Hello Seattle
9. Early Birdie
10. Fiji Water
11. Can You Feel the Love Tonight (Elton John cover)
12. Be Brave
13. Fireflies
14. Not All Heroes Wear Capes
15. New York City
16. Madeline Island
17. Cave In
18. Cinematic

Encore:

1. All My Friends