BØRNS & STRFKR

BØRNS & STRFKR at Williwaw Social Outdoors featuring Sundog, Happy Sad Face & Turbo Hell

Garrett Clark Borns (a.k.a. BØRNS) creates dreamily timeless music that sounds as if it were drawn, like water from a well, out of the collective unconscious. It’s a talent that could be a generational thing. Both Lana Del Rey and HAIM are fellow millennials, and they, too, are brilliant at making songs that seem to exist out of time. And like both of them, BØRNS achieves this uncanny effect by blending stylistic touches from vastly different eras and genres. He established this approach on his first two hits: “10,000 Emerald Pools” and “Electric Love.” Both released in 2015, they fold ’70s glam-rock confection and Beatles-esque songcraft into ’80s R&B—he’s definitely a big Prince fan—and digital-age electro-pop. Not only are they intoxicating, they’re also deeply confident sounding—as is the musician’s accompanying debut album, Dopamine. The young and talented Michigander (who relocated to Los Angeles in 2013) may have been barely in his 20s when recording the album, yet its meticulously layered details and overall sonic richness reflect the fact that he was already an experienced musician and composer, one who spent the bulk of his youth studying classical music and jazz while playing in a string of bands. BØRNS took three years to complete a follow-up, and it shows. Opening with “God Save Our Young Blood,” which features guest vocals from the like-minded Del Rey, 2018’s Blue Madonna lets the candy-coated-pop elements of Dopamine slip away to reveal a decidedly more cosmic expression of a vision that will only deepen and expand as the artist evolves.

STRFKR was started as a solo project by Joshua Hodges but quickly grew into a fully realized band with Keil Corcoran, Shawn Glassford, and Arian Jalali. Beginning with the mission of creating engaging, thought-provoking songs that people could dance to, the band released one full length and one EP before signing on with Polyvinyl in 2010. The band grew commercially and creatively with every new album, with 2011’s Reptilians, 2013’s Miracle Mile, and 2016’s Being No One, Going Nowhere all performing strongly enough to crack various Billboard charts, while multiple STRFKR songs were used in highly visible film, television, and streaming productions. The band started out in a time when a co-sign from blogs and music outlets of note were all but mandatory for new music to be heard and accepted. STRFKR bypassed the hype machine almost completely, focusing instead on making their shows more exciting and pushing their music to new places. In addition to a live album and several remix collections, the band’s extensive Vault Series has offered fans three volumes worth of unreleased demos and outtakes from every point in their evolution. On their latest full-length album, Parallel Realms, STRFKR embrace a more pop-forward approach while also hinting at experimentalism and the gentler textures on 2020’s heralded, Future Past Life.

This event is All Ages. Children under 12 are admitted free with a parent or legal guardian. Attendees under 21 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. A valid, physical government-issued ID must be presented at entry by all attendees 21 and over, and by the parent/legal guardian accompanying any attendee under 21. Attendees under 21 who arrive without a parent/legal guardian will not be admitted and will not be eligible for a refund.

Limit of eight (8) tickets per person. Orders over the limit in any combination of orders are subject to cancellation at any time without notice.

$1 from each ticket sold will be donated to the Town Square Park Fund through the Anchorage Park Foundation. The Rasmuson Foundation will match the donation one to one. More about the Town Square Park renovation donation matching fund can be found here.