Tales of Twos

Our initial attempt at All Access… not an unqualified success. Technical difficulties delayed our start. An unpredictable phone, that posted seemingly when it wanted it to, delayed our updates… Updates which were ultimately concluded when the phone died… Hopefully, we will work out the kinks for our next All-Access attempt… (Who knows when that attempt will occur).

I still cannot appreciate or comprehend what a late city Columbus is… I understand in the spring and summer, as classes ease and weather warms, late is a relative term… However, prior to moving to this city, late in my experience was people who arrived at a venue in primetime and went to sleep with Carson Daly. In Columbus, they arrive during Jay Leno and they go to sleep with Joe Scarborough.

Amidst my frustrated arrival (thank you technical difficulties and cross town traffic), I was immediately impressed with Lodge Bar’s transformation… It’s not like Lodge Bar hasn’t thrown a theme party previously and they always craft the appropriate atmosphere… With that said, this experience was truly unique… Gorgeous white snow on the windows… Crushed ice blue and snow on the tables… You were in a crystal paradise… The reinvention was exquisite…

Equally exquisite (and I must admit my personal bias for my own company here), was the combination of cards, circulars, and signs, which touted Gossip CBUS… While I mentioned hanging and twittering were mutually exclusive and they were… I caught myself, when I was finished looking at various sections of the venue where I had placed signs… I don’t care how much prestige one acquires in their lifetime… There remains a certain burst of pride when you observe someone reading the material, about you, which you just distributed… (I don’t know if the evening pays off in traffic focus, but I know the pride felt at these moments made the evening worth every effort)…

As the crowd trickled into Lodge Bar (it still was around 7:30 at this time, hours before the rush would ensue), the morsels of absurdity, which make great stories were present. The intriguing conversations, which make great stories were present… Notably on both these fronts were an occurrence and conversation I had within a sixty-minute timeframe… The conversation, involving a bouncer, focused on why the city is so late arriving… It was a great discussion, which concluded with his opinion of the city likes to pregame at home, with beer, which wont cost them anything (although that logic escapes me, because the beer cost them something at some point, right?)

The occurrence, involving the same bouncer, focused on two random heifers, one of which forgot her identification, one of which may have been underage, both claiming to be with the band that was set to perform within the hour… It turns out; they were with the band, although not in the we make music sense… They were groupies… I don’t know how they managed to score entrance, but several times, during the performance, I noticed them sitting, drinking nothing, not even water, watching the band… And let’s just say the band’s performance was as ugly as they were…

Despite a band best suited for a set of earplugs, instead of the stage at Lodge Bar, the crowd continued to be consistent… They were not imposing… They were not impressive… The crowd ebbed and flowed… At times, they looked on the precipice of providing the energy I expect at Lodge Bar… At other times, they made me wondering why I couldn’t just go home (and then I would remember, we were the co-sponsors of the event)…

As the trivia (which you could have won, if you were following our twitter) commenced, the crowd remained middling… When Mad River started hanging out (more like tossing out) prizes, the crowd didn’t intensify, but their energy increased exponentially… I couldn’t understand it… Miller Lite’s prize was a sick snowboard… There were Mad River passes, Pocono ski passes… These were amazing prizes… As I looked at the dozen people cramming themselves into a half-dozen foot space, I couldn’t fathom how this event, which I had promoted and Lodge had promoted, could feel (maybe not actually be, but just feel) under whelming… Then, another hour passed and I remembered a lesson I should never forget…

I was standing to the left of the stage, on the stairs leading to the upper bar, when the “Cupid Shuffle” began to play… Suddenly, I had an appreciation for reality… In less than sixty minutes, Columbus’ late arriving nature, had transformed the crowd from middling to monstrous… The dance floor was crammed with four dozen people, all stepping in unified rhythm to the overplayed anthem… Speaking of overplayed anthems… “Single Ladies” followed and the obviously single for a reason ladies ate it up…

And while we are on the subject of things the ladies ate up, I must mention the Brian Collins Band (not so much a band as a duet between a drummer and solo guitarist)… I could gush about their diverse and impressive set list… I could gush about their musical skill… But neither, as spectacular as they were, made this band… What made this duo is, in a word, showmanship… The trait that separates every band worth watching a second time, from those other bands, who you wish you hadn’t seen the first time…

The Atlanta tandem (yes, that’s Atlanta, Georgia, a state which knows a lot about Big Ten football) interacted beautifully with the crowd, notably two drunken bunnies, who took turns scoring their fifteen minutes of intoxicated stardom… Collins didn’t allow the show to become a complete farce… He managed the inebriated bunny… He worked her like a marionette… The height of the comedy was an exchange between the two, which was laced with sexual innuendo (and only half of it facetious)…

Overall, Snowed Inn, this company’s first endeavor in the event world, was successful… Was it perfect… Not even close… Did the crowd rival what we will see next weekend… Not even close… Still, it was a success, in the sense that two entities, both of which are competitive, but never combative… Forged an alliance, which, while not exclusive will hopefully last for years to come…