To tell you the truth I was a little skeptical to go to this show, I had seen GC at Warped this summer and I really enjoyed their show, but I was worried with their recent TRL and Billboard success that their show was not going to live up to my expectations. But this show ended up being soo much more than I expected; so I left the venue a happy camper.
First off, I don't think I had been at a sold out show at the Newport, by the time I got there the line streched around the block. Of course, the great majority of people there were middle school kids, but everyone was really nice. However, I was disturbed to see 12 year old girls wearing Unseen and Exploited shirts... but hey, what are we going to do about imitators? So they didn't bother me much.
Eventually I nestled myself into a comfortable vantage spot in the pit and prepared myself... didn't know what to expect, but the whole crowd was getting really pumped.
Simple Plan opened the night, and eventhough it was their first time playing Columbus, everyone was pretty familiar with them. I wasn't, but they put on a good show. They did a 8 song set that got the crowd nice and bouncy, and they had really good stage presence and good interaction with the crowd. I don't know what songs they did, but they were fun to watch. They did a lot of jumping around in a newfoundgloriesque style, but they still had some good material. They got everyone really pumped. One highlight in their set was that I think that either Benji or GC's guitar tech did some stage diving, so that was cool... I couldn't tell because they were both dressed alike. But if it was Benji, that was really cool of him.
The second band that night was Autopilot Off. I had seen them at Warped, but I hadn't heard much of them, and I didn't really get much into them last time I saw them. But when I saw them this friday, they absolutely blew my fucking socks off of me. They put on an awesome show, a whole lot of power, very good guitar work, and just an incredible sound all together. I think they were one of the highlites of the night. They played all of the songs off their latest e.p., and they got the pit going nicely. They gave a couple of nice speeches about how much they enjoyed doing the tour with G.C. and they were really happy that G.C. remembers their friends and takes them on tour. That's what it's all about, nothing but Music and Friends and all the other shit that goes on is peripheral and it doesn't matter. So that was cool. I really liked their set, and I talked to them after the show and they were really nice guys, and really cool to just hang out with. Autopilot Off gained one more fan with me that night.
The timing of the sets was good, and about 9:50, the lights went down and the intro song for G.C.'s "Young and the Hopeless came on"... Everyone but Joel came out and they played the intro, that was cool. I was afraid that my ear drums were going to pop with all the girls screaming when they came on, but I was enjoying myself. Good Charlotte put on an amazing show that night. They played all of the good songs off "Young and the Hopeless", and every other song they would do songs from their self titled. It was cool to hear all of their songs played. They put on an awesome show. Some of the highlites include: when they played "ohio worldwide", and they gave a motivational speech that made everone feel better about living in god forsaken ohio :). Benji was giving saying how much he liked Magnolia Thunderpussy and Stained Skin (Best record store and best tattoo place in Columbus), they had some great interaction with the crowd. They genuinely seemed happy to be playing for us, and I found that really nice. They had security turn on the lights, because this one girl hurt herself really badly, and they didn't want her to get worse, so I found that really cool. The music was incredible, everyone was singing along, and G.C. proved that they could do awesome live shows, so I really liked that. They did two songs as an encore, and their set lasted about 1 hour and 15 minutes. I really liked the show, and I really liked the fact that the band seemed happy and grateful to everyone to be playing. They tried coming out to meet people, but there was a mob of girls trying to get to them, so I wasn't able to meet them or anything. Oh, another thing, the one time when GC did anything close to preaching, was when they were talking about suicide and they were giving their intro to "Hold On". It was cool that they care enough to do something like that.
It was an awesome show, I didn't even mind the junior high kids and self proclaimed screeching "riot girls", if you get a chance you should check them out when they come somewhere near you. You will be able to enjoy a good show and get to see some really good opening bands. If you can put the TRL bullshit and preconceptions, you will treat yourself to a good show.