For day two of the concert trifecta, a venture where Wonder Boy and I would see concerts on three consecutive nights in three different cuties, we left Nashville, Tennessee, for Columbus, Ohio. We were stoked to see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes because we had seen them so recently and they had been fabulous.
After we checked in at our hotel, we headed down to the Short North District to meet our front DPG for dinner. Before I go into details about concert, which is the main point of my post, I need to diverge for a moment.
What happened to the Short North? People, how could you let this happen??? When I left college, one of my best friends, Delicious, moved to Columbus. He was immediately drawn to the Short North because it was full of cool, young people and had a great hipster vibe. Now it seems to draw all sorts of pretentious douche bags. Barf. Later in the evening we drive down High Street for our show and I know that the street has been “improved” but barf again! Why do people prefer some genetic, gentrified nonsense over genuine charm?!??
But I digress.
So, we ate with DPG and heard about his job and the baby that is on the way. We ate entirely too much grease and realized how much more time we all need to get together, shortly after which we realized we needed to scoot to get to the show. The irony.
The concert was Newport Music Hall, which is nice but no Ryman Auditorium. The show was sold out, as it should have been. Wonder Boy and I were able to snag great seats up at the top of the venue and get an ariel view of the stage. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes were really on a good run that night. They came out posing as another band and were their own opening act and sounded awesome playing songs that no one knew. Next they came out as themselves. Maybe they were tired. Certainly drugs were involved. The show spiraled quickly into a mess. Most of the band kept their stuff together but the lead singer was cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. At one point he HID while the rest of the band kept playing. Then he came back out on stage and said, “I’m back! They’ve all been here the whole time but now I’m back!”
The crowd was crazy for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes but Wonder Boy and I were disappointed. I won’y go so far as to say it was an awful show or a bad show, but it wasn’t their best work by any stretch.
