My friend has two taboo rules about concerts that were strictly enforced on our way to the show. One, you don't wear a T-shirt of the band you are seeing. Two, you don't listen to that band on the way to the show. We abide by both.
The venue is larger than I had imagined. Tim and I drove to Columbus for the concert, and this was my first visit to the Newport Music Hall.
Despite the state's smoking ban, the scent of tobacco seems eternally caked into the patchy, rundown, paint-stained walls. Aside from that, the only other discernible aromas are that of stale beer and sweat. I like it.
Tim gets a beer, but I decide against it. It's a concert, not an M. Night Shyamalan movie, so I think I can survive without being inebriated.
We arrive midway through the first opening band to find the floor in front of the stage is almost completely empty. Instead, there are copious amounts of people trying to push their way to the front of the bar line, which is adorned with fluorescent Bud Light signs.
Despite only catching their last few songs, I really don't like what I'm hearing from the first band. I'll be honest, I don't even know its name, but the overly dramatic attempt at an artistic Simon & Garfunkel duet style makes me curse music, if only for a moment. It now becomes abundantly clear why everyone seems to need a drink.
Tim finds a good spot near the draft bar, which is being tended by a tiny blonde who unknowingly dictates my attention periodically throughout the show.
The second band, Heartless Bastards, puts on a great show. The singer, Erika
Wennerstrom, sounds like Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I don't normally enjoy bands with female lead singers, but her voice is too powerful to ignore, and I'm transfixed for their entire set, save a few back glances at the aforementioned barmaid.
Finally, after two opening bands and several spilled beers on the part of some blackout drunks next to me, The Gaslight Anthem takes the stage to a screaming crowd.
For those who are unfamiliar, The Gaslight Anthem is a punk band from New Brunswick, NJ. They are a mix between a less in-your-face Against Me! and a more consistent version of Alkaline Trio. Tim introduced me to them a few months ago. I like them, and to say the same thing for my compatriot in attendance would be a vast understatement.
They open with "Great Expectations," the first song on their most recent album. Unfortunately, Newport Music Hall apparently chose to employ some uneducated fool to operate the sound checks that night, and half of the song was drowned out by a deafening feedback screech.
We are forced to take several steps back when some guy has what appears to be a seizure on the floor only feet in front of us, until he is carried out by bar staff. This scene pretty much constitutes the night's only wild card moment.
After another glance at the bartender, whom I have named Jenny, we push forward to catch the rest of the show.
The Gaslight Anthem is putting on a great show. When they play the opening riff to "Old White Lincoln," my favorite of their songs, I finally begin taking part in the crowd's formally obnoxious dull roar.
The band leaves the stage for a few minutes after an hour-long performance. I use this opportunity to try and come up with a classy pickup line that a) I would never use anyway and b) Jenny would like. But nothing that comes to mind would be considered classy, even by my own lax standards, and it would most likely result in a restraining order.
I then retire my attention to the band's encore, which includes "Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts," another of my favorites, as well as a couple others.
After the show, we walk a couple of blocks to Cane's Chicken for some munchables, but come up short when we find out they close at 11 p.m. Accepting defeat, we enter the parking garage to locate Tim's car.
I drive home while Tim sleeps, odd mutterings interspersed throughout his otherwise silent nap. Unsure as to whether or not I am about to break another rule, I turn the volume low before tuning his iPod to play some Gaslight. The music is a perfect soundtrack to a long night drive.
