Blood Brothers "Set Fire" to Newport Music Hall
By Andy Brownfield, Staff Writer
November 5, 2006 | 5:39 p.m.
An air of madness descended upon Columbus on Friday, November 3. The people lined up outside the Newport Music Hall in Columbus knew they would not be leaving with their hearing intact. They were there to see the Blood Brothers.
The Blood Brothers is currently in the midst of a North America tour with And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, along with Brothers and Sisters and Celebration.
The doors to the Newport did not open until 7 p.m., but people started lining up in the frigid cold even before 6 p.m. By the time attendees were finally granted admission, the line stretched down the block and around the corner. A local man entertained show-goers by singing about getting drunk for spare change.
The chill from outside seemed to follow the crowd in as everybody stood listless with crossed arms through the first two bands.
The opening band was Brothers and Sisters, a nine piece band from Austin, Texas, that had worked with Trail of Dead on its upcoming album. The band played "Texas Music for Ohio people," which was a blend of folksy country rock that stood in sharp contrast to the acts to come.
Following Brothers and Sisters was the band Celebration, a trio from Baltimore, Md. The band's music was a blend of synthy drum and bass, played on a snake skin electric organ, keyboard, guitar, drums and assorted maracas and tambourines. Singer Katrina Ford, who sounds like an older Karen O, states on the band's Web site that she longs for an era in which audiences do not stand glumly with their arms crossed while listening to bands, but after she greeted the Columbus audience twice as Cleveland most of the audience found it hard to get into the band's set.
During the sets of the first two bands, the crowd in front of the Newport's modest stage grew slowly. By the time the Blood Brothers tour managers began their sound check the room was packed.
The stage was silent, the lights were dim and the crowd was hushed. Just before the Blood Brothers came on stage a banner bearing the cover of its new CD, Young Machetes, rose over the stage, drawing cheers from the audience. Without a word the Blood Brothers took the stage and launched into the first song off Machetes, "Set Fire to the Face on Fire." The crowd that had been static and listless through the opening bands erupted into flames, spawning a mosh pit that would last the band's whole 14-song set.
The Brothers played an incendiary set that spanned practically its entire career as a band. A majority of the songs came off Young Machetes, but the band also drew many from Crimes, Burn Piano Island Burn and even one from its sophomore release, March On Electric Children.
Midway through its set the band stopped to wish its tour manager, Zoe, a happy birthday, offering her a small cake with two trick candles while the audience sang for her.
The Blood Brothers is truly one of those bands thats live show blends the line between the artist and the audience. The contagious energy with which the band performed its set ignited the crowd so much that by the end of the show everything from the stage to the doors was one living, writhing mass-- singing, moving and living in unison.
It is hard to leave the band's show without losing hearing in at least one ear, but by that point it does not matter. The last chance to see the Blood Brothers live near Ohio is on November 9 in Philadelphia, Pa. The Blood Brothers is out to change the world with its music, and after seeing the band perform live it is hard to feel that at least some part of one's self has not been changed forever.
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