Review: Drunk off Dopamine with BØRNS and Avid Dancer at The Independent
BØRNS (photo: Ian Young) On Sunday, November 22 BØRNS entranced a sold out crowd at The Independent. Garrett Borns, aka BØRNS, already has a widely agreed "instant classic" after only one album that was released last month. Before the album was even released, this show was sold out. The moment I had heard about the show, it had already been sold out for months. With that being said, I came into that venue expecting to fall in love, and I did. Before I went to the show, I had experienced a weird long day. From working 8 hours at my day job, to [...]
Interview: BØRNS is chemically dependent on love
When he was 10 and growing up alongside the dunes of the east Lake Michigan coastline, in Grand Haven, Michigan, Garrett Borns already had his sights on the arts and the life of a showman. But music hadn’t yet become his primary obsession. That belonged to magic. The city of Colon, to the south and near the state line with Indiana, is known as the magic capital of the world and hosts conventions. Borns had his parents take him there annually. With the dream of becoming a restaurant magician, he began to build up his repertoire. “Nothing involving live animals, [...]
Review: Charli XCX, Bleachers share top billing, but not enthusiasm
Perhaps the point Charlotte Aitchison was trying to make at the Fox Theater in Oakland Thursday evening was one of irony–-combining grrl power anthems with faux pole dancing and flashing of the lower half variety (she was covered). If so, the message was muddled. Perhaps the singer-songwriter/diva-in-training known as Charli XCX was just trying to make too big a leap on her biggest American tour – her previous San Francisco gig was at the several-hundred-capacity Slim’s – and she’s not yet ready to be Britney Spears. Or perhaps, when paired with Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers, with its high production value stage [...]