So many hipsters in one line. I honestly did not know there could ever be that many hipsters, waiting in line to get into the Palladium Ballroom, waiting for Two Door Cinema Club to come on stage and start the show, waiting to forget their lives— if only for a few hours.
It felt like a Dr. Seuss book, “Some are thin. And some are fat. The fat one has a yellow hat.” Probably not the best quote but looking back I remembered it a little differently.
However, there indeed were a lot of hipsters, some with real glasses, and some with fake, the ones wearing fake glasses had fake tans too.
That would be a really awesome way to end a blog. I mean Dr. Seuss is where it’s at (it being the monster that lives in your closet. Not really, that’s not cool at all). However, I can’t end with a Dr. Seuss quote when I’ve only just begun.
Two Door Cinema Club was the first concert I’ve been to where you spend the entire time standing. I did the smart thing and wore flat shoes; I pitied the girls who wore heels. Eventually I realized the majority of the girls wearing heels did so because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to see — most of them were secretly gnomes.
The opener for the show was a man I had never heard of, Robert DeLong. He is a synthetic one-man band armed with a Wii controller, a joystick and drums making his set seem more like performance art. He would set his voice on loop, set everything up and then jump around on stage holding the Wii controller to alter the music.
After his set, there was more waiting.
The waiting was the worst part. It was almost scary to see people standing at attention, acting more like brainwashed zombies as they shuffled through the crowd trying to find a spot to stand and wait.
I remember a sudden silence. There was no more rumble of conversation, and then everyone turned toward the stage almost seemingly simultaneously.
Singer Alex Trimble, guitarist Sam Halliday and bassist Kevin Baird walked on stage and the silence was broken by a crazy LED light show and thunderous cheering from the audience.
My best friend, Amanda Granato, and I managed a cosy spot near the stage, however, it was also close to the speakers. I figured out early on that this meant a headache and a ringing in my ears that would last hours after the show. But it was so worth it.
People bounced and bobbled, fist pumped and clapped, and shouted. And for a little bit, there wasn’t anything else but the music pounding out of the massive speakers and people screeching along, and jumping.
There is kind of magic that any good artist or band can cast over a group of people that holds those listening spellbound, wrapped in magic. With their slightly lilting voices, Two Door Cinema Club had that magic.
