On Saturday night, Papadosio showcased their Earth Night event at the Concord Music Hall in Chicago, IL. The mission of “Music – Tech – Art – Action” was present from the beginning of the day, when the band hosted a variety of important workshops for concertgoers to attend. With the day fading into night, Papadosio segued with music on the night of the winter solstice beginning.

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The music began with Dirtwire (featuring David Satori of Beats Antique) and Lapa (featuring Ilya Goldberg of Emancipator) getting things warmed up. When Papadosio took the stage for their headlining performance, fans were relieved to see guitarist and singer Anthony Thogmartin with the band–as he was running a fever prior to the set. Thogmartin showed no signs of illness as the band opened their set with “2am.” The shorter song, and perhaps one of the only Papadosio songs that could ever be found on pop radio, had Thogmartin and keyboardist Billy Brouse on acoustic guitars. A monster “Paradigm Shift” followed, highlighting the band’s ability to stretch an instrumental song, with rocking power chords from Thogmartin to close. “Cushion” had a great segue into “Garden,” and the crowd went wild when the familiar bass line of the latter song finally crystallized into form. “Method of Control” followed and featured a very slow, jazzy ending to the song–unique to the normal vocal ending.

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The highlight of the night came in “All I Knew” when the band brought up violinist Ilya Goldberg for some intense improvisation on the fan favorite. The violin was an added touch to the well-known song. Of course, everybody sang along with the chorus line- “All that I knew was love.” A very rare number in “Planting the Seeds of Life” popped up next. A spacey “Therian” closed out the set–while the psychedelic paintings and illustrations began to take shape in the back of the venue.

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For the encore, Papadosio played “Euclidean Lights,” the only song performed off their latest EP Pattern Integrities, and then closed things out with “Night Colors.” The fan favorite instrumental had everyone dancing their hardest despite the clock winding down to two in the morning. With hardly any other bands playing or touring in the month of December, one usually has to wait until the New Year runs to get their live music fix. Luckily, Papadosio brought the annual Earth Night to Chicago for an inspiring success this year. Next up for the band is their New Year’s run in Nashville, TN. Head here for more information.

Setlist: Papadosio | Concord Music Hall | Chicago, IL | 12/16/17

Set: 2am*, Paradigm Shift, Cushion, Garden, Method of Control, Cue, All I Knew**, Planting the Seeds of Life*, Therian

E: Euclidean Lights, Night Colors

*on acoustics
** featuring Ilya Goldberg (of Emancipator) on violin