Faced with a jam-packed, sold-out venue this past Wednesday night at the Owl City show, I had no other choice but to tunnel through the crowd of milling teeny-boppers, some accompanied by their long-suffering parents. It was a virtual underage circus.

[Pictured: Adam Young of Owl City]

This is how my night started.

First up was Deas Vail. A few years ago I fell in love with their first album, All The Houses Look The Same, when a couple of hot girls came over to my house and gave me the group’s disc. I figured they’d play the majority of songs from their new album, White Lights, but I wasn’t anticipating an entire sets-worth. I have nothing against a band promoting their new album, but I was let down that none of the earlier songs got a nod.

An entertaining incident in the crowd caught my eye just before the second act was getting ready to start. The boiling intensity of the underagers who love Owl City had reached a bottleneck and right at the stage, a young guy was pushing back a younger girl because he wanted a front-row spot. I mean, come on dude, Owl City is like Kid’s Bop on crack but I guess everyone has their own guilty pleasure. Anyway, there was another girl in the front who kept trying to get the security guard’s attention because she claimed said dude was “abusing” women.

This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2010.