Had it not been for Jack White’s unfortunately timed appearance in Columbus that same night, I’m certain Two Door Cinema Club could have easily sold out the largest venue in Columbus. But, they had to make do with the Newport. It ended up being the perfect venue for the show they presented – a mesh of old fashioned rocking with some new age dance alternapop.

My arrival at the venue unfortunately occured halfway through Guards‘ (of New York) set. The band had a huge sound that sold me within a minute of hearing them. The stream on Spotify frankly doesn’t do the live performance justice. Consider them spacey alternative ambient rock. They remind me a bit of O’Brother (they aren’t that similar actually – just brought my mind there with the wall of sound effect they created within the Newport – I saw O’Brother do something opening for Thrice about a year ago). In any case, I will be keeping an eye on these guys. They somehow were able to pull off modest jamming without it seeming like they were holding anything back.

The second opener, Friends of Brooklyn, NY confused me. Maybe that’s their goal, I don’t know. Musically, their sound lies somewhere between pop and funk, which a little bit of something completely different thrown in. Lead singer Samantha sung, shrieked, and breathed into the mic. She attempted to turn a complaint of a bad back into a sultry comment about it being “hot in here” before she pulled the icy-hot pad off her back and tossed it into the audience (ew). Her fellow vocalist was pretty into the performance too – actually, the whole band was, even the guy who had nothing to do but play bongo drums. Their new bass player was fun to watch – she grooved on and off stage, even getting a bit of dancing in near the merch table during Two Door’s set. Long story short, their self-given genre class of “WEIRD POP” says it all.

Two Door Cinema Club‘s set basically had two themes. One, they played songs without wasting any time. Two, it was cool. I’ll address the second point first. The stage set-up was one of the best I’ve seen, being interesting, engaging, and spectacular without becoming a total epilepsy-inducing event. The band exhibited a stage presence that was neither pretentious nor shy. Just… cool. Even their middle-aged sound guy in the back had a cool aura about him. The mix by the way was so good the only way it could have been better would have been a literal reconstruction of the Newport. And, ah! The songs! No indulgent jam sessions. They just played through each song verbatim, but made them sound better. Everything from “Sleep Alone” to “Eat That Up, It’s Good For You” in the main set sounded great and nothing slowed down. The trio of encore songs (“Someday,” “Come Back Home,” and “What You Know”) were great too. As I exited the venue I was sure I would do my utmost to seize every opportunity to see them in the future.

Setlist:
Sleep Alone
Undercover Martyn
Do You Want It All?
This is the Life
Wake Up
You’re Not Stubborn
Sun
Spring
I Can Talk
Costume Party
Next Year
Something Good Can Work
Handshake
Eat That Up, It’s Good For You
—
Someday
Come Back Home
What You Know