BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Find Local//findlocal.community//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:19700308T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:19701101T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:1641840c-eb2b-4a26-a434-f602f15320f0@findlocal.community DTSTAMP:20261012T002559Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261103T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261103T210000 SUMMARY:Blue October DESCRIPTION:Justin Furstenfeld is certainly never one to mince words. Whe ther on or offstage\, the Blue October singer-songwriter tells it like i t is. It’s no surprise then that on a recent afternoon\, Furstenfeld is nothing less than blunt in his assessment of his iconic band’s breakthro ugh album. “It’s fucking beauty! It’s gorgeous! It’s timeless!” the sing er says with zero hesitation. He’s speaking to Foiled\, Blue October’s e pic and undeniably enduring 2006 landmark LP\, a 14-track collection tha t temporarily sent the Houston-bred band into the stratosphere thanks to seminal singles including “Hate Me” and “Into The Ocean.” And while on first glance it might appear the musician is lavishing praise upon his b and’s most well-known project\, it’s anything but hubris. Rather\, Furst enfeld is speaking to the appreciation and love he’s come to feel for th e project\, notably the knowledge of what that specific body of work did and continues to do for him\, for his band\, for his overall mental wel l-being\, for his journey to the present. Because for as much as Foiled initially sent Furstenfeld and Blue October’s life into a manic whirlwin d\, now\, as the singer looks back on it 20 years in the rearview\, and particularly as the band prepares to launch a yearlong Foiled 20th-anniv ersary celebration\, the singer has come to realize what a true blessing his band’s most beloved body of work has been in his life. “So now here we are\,” Furstenfeld says as Blue October which includes drummer Jerem y Furstenfeld\, multi-instrumentalist Ryan Delahoussaye\, bassist Matt N oveskey\, and lead guitarist Will Knaak prepare to hit the road this fal l for a Foiled headline tour where they’ll play the classic album in its entirety. “Let’s show and remind everyone just how special and eclectic that album was\,” the singer says of Foiled. “And\, most importantly\, how much we wore our heart on our sleeve for it.” Written chiefly by Fur stenfeld and produced by Furstenfeld and Dave Castel\, the collection ba lances deeply confessional lyrics with soaring melodies and emotional ho nesty that would become Blue October’s hallmark. Foiled is a dangerous a nd devious album\, a collection of delightfully disturbing poetic songs. It oozes with authenticity (see dark love songs including “You Make Me Smile” and “She’s My Ride Home”) and bubbles with transparency. Even whe n the melodies were undoubtedly irresistible\, as was the case with stan dout single “Hate Me\,” the message was forever intensely personal and h eartfelt. In many ways\, Foiled was the culmination of everything Blue O ctober had worked for. After releasing their second album while signed t o Universal Records\, 1999’s Consent to Treatment\, the band was subsequ ently dropped by the label the following year. Three years later\, howev er\, off the success of “Calling You\,” the first single off what would become their third full-length LP\, History for Sale\, the band was re-s igned by Universal Republic. It was Foiled however and the process that got the band there that changed everything for Blue October. Furstenfeld largely disappeared while writing Foiled. Feeling misunderstood\, he is olated himself and wrote with a feverish obsession\, as well as with the need to finally dissect the maddening beauty behind depression\, addict ion and mental illness – obstacles that had haunted him for his entire l ife to that point. With no one to watch or judge him\, and without anyon e to cast doubt over his creative process\, he bled onto paper with a le vel of brutal honesty previously unseen. This album would go on to burn like wildfire connecting with millions of people around the world by giv ing a face and a name to the demons collectively. This emotional experie nce endured while writing Foiled colors the album with a palpably raw se ntiment\; it’s almost hot to the touch. Blue October’s deeply committed fanbase\, as well as the general public\, responded to it near immediate ly upon release: Foiled cracked the Billboard Rock Chart Top 10\, was ev entually RIAA-certified platinum. And while Foiled marked a breakthrough moment for the band\, it was truly only the beginning for Blue October: the album’s deeply personal songwriting and emotionally resonant sound not only cemented the Houston-bred band as one of rock’s most distinctiv e voices\, but the deep connection it forged with their fanbase through the album’s highly personal lyrics remains palpable today. As the band’s global presence has continually grown. Blue October’s catalog now surpa sses one billion streams and continues to climb – new listeners continue to discover Foiled alongside the band’s ever-expansive catalog that fol lowed in its wake. At the time however\, Furstenfeld readily admits he c ould hardly enjoy all the supposedly great things happening around him a nd the band: not only was the singer in the throes of a heavy drug addic tion\, but with the singer breaking his leg backstage during an early da te on the Foiled headline tour directly coinciding with the height of ma nia surrounding the band and project Blue October was subsequently force d to cancel the remainder of that tour. Just as soon as everything had s eemingly taken off for Blue October\, it felt as if things were crashing down. As documented in the stunning 2020 documentary\, Get Back Up\, th e next few years for Blue October were plagued by Furstenfeld’s deepenin g drug addiction as well as interband turmoil. In May 2012\, Furstenfeld entered rehab and he has been sober ever since. His recovery journey ha s transformed not only the band’s music\, but also his personal outlook on life. “It’s a fucking awesome life right now\,” he says proudly with a smile. To that end\, now 20 years after Foiled’s release\, as the band prepares to celebrate the album’s two-decade anniversary\, Furstenfeld finally is able to enjoy all that the transformative 2006 LP brought int o his and his band’s life. In short\, he says he believes everything pla yed out as it should. “It did what it’s supposed to do\,” he says of the album in retrospect. I’m the most spiritually beautiful\, calm\, peacef ul\, amazing person and father that I never was before” And while on the surface the Foiled anniversary might appear to be backward-looking\, fo r Furstenfeld it’s a lesson and exercise in how the past can shape the p resent. “That’s why we’re doing an anniversary tour for it now. It’s so cool. You gotta celebrate the fact that we made that music. And now look where we are because of it. It’s such a blessing.”\n\nTickets: https:// www.ticketmaster.com/blue-october-portland-maine-11-03-2026/event/010064 6DB4FB3EF1\n\nhttps://findlocal.community/event/1641840c-eb2b-4a26-a434- f602f15320f0 LOCATION:State Theatre\, 609 Congress St\, Portland\, ME 04101 URL:https://findlocal.community/event/1641840c-eb2b-4a26-a434-f602f15320f 0 STATUS:CONFIRMED SEQUENCE:0 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR