Odesza’s live set blooms for In Return tour

On a night of rough rain and hailstorms, everyone in the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium completely forgot the world outside its doors. Friday night, Odesza’s unique brand of subtle melodic trap music managed to envelop the crowd in lights, mist, and spark showers. That was night one of the double feature at Bill Graham to hit the latter portion the duo’s In Return tour.

Seattle natives Clayton Knight and Harrison Mills came onstage with dual keyboards, half a drum set, and an additional man on bass. All were draped behind the lights of a five panelled screen highlighting each drop. The shared expertise in classical piano and guitar was apparent throughout the outros and interludes between songs. The live set invoked appreciation of the music they make as one of the more memorable EDM acts in the industry. Surprisingly, their set only partially highlighted tracks off of their album In Return. While fan favorites like “In Bloom,” “Kyoto,” and “How Did I Get Here?” appeared in the set list, a number of remixes and festival set tracks riled the San Francisco crowd.  Energy emanated purely through the music; Mills and Knight remained relatively static, hardly interacting with the crowd or each other except upon stage arrival and departure.

Like any good EDM show the effects enhanced the experience. “Say My Name” was accompanied with a confetti shower, explosive lights, and animations along each panel of the screen. And a shower of sparks over the front of the stage and a more than satisfied crowd ended the encore. But not the tour: Odesza return to international audiences in the new year, following an appearance at the forthcoming Holy Ship!.

Article by Arnav Chaturvedi