Rick’s Rants and Raves

Skippy beat me to it–he wrote a great summary of our evening with Scythian. Rather than duplicate too much of what he wrote, I’ll just add some random thoughts about the evening.

• The band was scheduled to play at 8PM, but owing to my experience with Mother Grove, I knew a small place like Byrne’s could fill up quickly. So we got there around 7PM.
• “Is this going to be loud?” Skippy asked in a nasally whine. So we sat toward the back. Actually, thanks to the damage done to my ears in my younger concert going days, I thought the volume was just about right.
• The energy I saw in Scythian at the Dublin Irish Festival was present at Byrne’s as well but it took longer for the smaller crowd to warm up than at the Festival.  At the Festival, they really worked the full size of the enormous stage, probably burning 3000 calories during the hour long set. On Byrne’s smaller stage, they were more physically constrained.
• There were a lot of people who, like me, had seen Scythian for the first time at the Dublin Irish Festival, and it was good to see them welcomed back to Columbus with such enthusiasm.
• The $10 cover was steeper than many of us were expecting. The typical cover in Columbus is $5. But the crowd paid it anyway.
• At one point while Scythian stickers were circulating in the crowd, a guy in the back exclaimed loudly just as the music stopped “We paid ten bucks so we could get a f***ing sticker?” He was suitably embarrassed and disappeared into the other room for a bit.
• The crowd was majority female: probably 3-1. Despite Skippy’s near-singleness I couldn’t convince him to dance near the stage. At one point there were 12 women and 1 man. I tried to be his wing-man, but it just wasn’t his thing.
• Anne showed up after a girls-night-out at a Blue Jacket’s preseason game, and we had a great time jamming to the second set. I had really wanted to dance and her arrival (coupled with the liquid courage I’d been drinking) enabled me to get off my seat and break a sweat looking like an idiot. I hope Skippy never posts the videos he took.
• Our waitress had great timing and kept the beer flowing. She worked her butt off during the show, and let loose a bit, dancing in the crowd, during the second set. I’m sure its tough to keep up with everyone in an event like that, but she did a great job.

All in all, it was a great time, well worth the cover, despite the initial “sticker shock”.