The Airborne Toxic Event returned to Columbus on Sunday night and took a step up the Columbus concert ladder by playing their first show on the indoor stage at the LC.
Truth be told, the band looked a little rougher than they have in previous visits and started out the set in a fairly low key way. Opening with the title track from last year’s “All At Once,” and following up with the previous albums opening track I had an odd feeling that this was going to be a fairly routine show. Thankfully, I was very wrong.
The brilliant single “All I Ever Wanted” sounds wonderful on record and played live has an extra kick of energy to it. It was starting to feel like the band were beginning to warm up.
And before long the band hit their stride. “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?” and “Gasoline” were irresistible; “Numb” and “Changing” had the crowd at full volume.
While the newer songs didn’t miss the mark, it’s the first album’s songs that really got the LC crowd jumping. “Something New” found the increasingly playful Mikel Jollet ascend the LC’s slightly unstable speaker stack, much to the delight of the cellphone wielding fans below.
Before returning for the cliche encore, the band finished with a rousing rendition of “Sometime Around Midnight.” A song that will likely be the bands biggest hit.
On returning for the encore, Mikel Jollett claimed that “All we have are each other,” referring to his band mates. It was a statement that really encapsulates The Airborne Toxic Event. It isn’t hard to see that these five people are friends who enjoy being around each other and love what they’re doing without taking themselves too seriously. Seeing Mikel attempt to put Steven off in the middle of a song or seeing Daren and Noah jam along to the various music styles that Mikel can throw at them only goes to show that once they get going, they have a blast on stage. We can all only hope that the joy never fades.