In the last three years ODESZA The last goodbye The tour has covered 54 shows in 48 venues across North America, including headlining sets at festivals such as Governors Ball and Bonnaroo. In 2022 and 2023, the tour grossed $35.8 million and sold 601,000 tickets, according to numbers reported to Billboard Boxscore.
Tomorrow marks the beginning of his end. From the 4th to the 6th of July, ODESZA will play its three finals The last goodbye run at The Gorge Amphitheater, the iconic venue about 150 miles southeast of the duo's hometown of Seattle. Sixty-six thousand fans are expected over the three nights, and if all goes according to plan, nearly everyone will pass through an on-site installation the act created as a tangible, extraordinary and — this time — truly final farewell.
Called “Echoes,” the installation includes six 30-foot towers, 120 LED screens and a host of cutting-edge technology that will include projection mapping and, of course, sound. Crafted from brushed aluminum so the installation reflects sunlight by day, after dark, “Echoes” comes to life with video images incorporating brand new visual content from the duo's epic three-year tour, which is also, says the head of the project. creative Steve Bramucci, “partly inspired by the fans.”
This eight-minute video loop will be synced with audio mixed by ODESZA's Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight. Known for the meticulous attention to detail they put into their music and all elements of the ODESZA universe, they have been heavily involved in the design and execution of “Echoes”.
Their 10-minute soundscape was built from soft ambient music mixed with vocal notes that fans left for the pair about what Last goodbye The season meant for them, with people commenting on thoughtful things like how they never felt comfortable dancing in public until they saw the show. how music helped them cope with the loss of parents, grandparents, best friends and relationships. how the shows widened their friend group. and how this ODESSA chapter has brought joy to their lives.
It's a soundtrack with the power to bring tears to one's ears while listening to it at one's desk, so it's likely to have a strong emotional impact when fans experience it at The Gorge. (For those unable to attend, the July 6 finale will air live on Veeps.)
The work is designed “to be experienced in the boom period before a show or to fall down after a show,” says Bramucci, “but you can tell that ODESZA is thinking that people are going to sit here for a few minutes. They're not just going to walk by, do some Instagrams and bounce back.” Given the flow of crowds at The Gorge, Bramucci expects “97 to 98%” of attendees to pass through “Echoes.” (Another 3% will enter through the non-driving VIP area after installation.)
The hope is that fans will actually spend some time with a project that a global team has spent the last two months creating. “Echoes” takes influence from a design originally made in Russia by Russian creative studio Setup, with a second creative studio, The Vessel, expanding on this design and managing the “Echoes” project in the United States. Ship operator and co-founder Jenny Feterovich is creative director for the installation.
Meanwhile, Bramucci's team at Uproxx was tasked with the user experience, coordination and storytelling around the project, with a number of other companies involved in audiovisual and visual building. A crew of 30 has been on site since June 30, working around the clock to get “Echoes” up and running when doors open tomorrow at 5 p.m.
“Echoes” is building this week at The Gorge Amphitheatre.
This challenge has been compounded by the logistics of working at The Gorge. “It's literally in the middle of nowhere,” says Feterovich. “We have to truck everything that goes there and there's no margin for error because you can't run back to an office three hours away to go get something. Preparation here is of the utmost importance.”
The other big challenge is the weather. Construction crews are bracing for possible strong winds and certain heat, with temperatures during construction in the mid-80s and temperatures on show days predicted to be in the 90s. Saturday is expected to reach 100 degrees.
“Echoes” was designed on computers equipped with Snapdragon X Elite, a processor from Qualcomm that integrates artificial intelligence with advanced battery processing power performance and speed. On site, Snapdragon-powered PCs will be used to view maps, troubleshoot and modify plans in real-time, while the team will also run visuals and audio with Snapdragon PCs. Qualcomm subsidized the project, with hard costs running into the high six figures.
“We found that there are a lot of synergies between Snapdragon technology and this kind of music,” says Qualcomm CMO Don McGuire. “EDM artists embrace innovation and are open to experimenting with technology and new tools, making them great partners.”
Ultimately, though, all technology is meant to elicit a uniquely human response.
“If I see the face of even one fan who has a serious emotional connection to it, who says, 'The diaphragm of my appreciation of music and what it means to connect with music has changed because of this installation,' then that's the perfect win,” says Bramucci.
